Center Valley, PA (September 25, 2024) - First-years Brooke Signorella and Allison Reimer combined for 35 kills leading the DeSales University volleyball team past Lebanon Valley College, 3-2, in a big MAC Freedom Conference win to open the conference season on Wednesday evening in Billera Hall.

DeSales (3-9, 1-0 MAC Freedom) snaps a seven-match losing skid in which four of the seven losses came in heart break fashion in five sets, breaking thru with a come-from-behind five-set win to open conference play.

The Bulldogs led nearly the entire first set and nearly had the win before a net violation cancelled out set point and LVC scored the final four points to win 26-24 to take a 1-0 lead. DSU dug deep and finished off another tight set in the second set three of the final four points to win 25-23 as Reimer provided the clinching kill.

Lebanon Valley controlled play in the third set, winning 25-18, and led comfortably (10-3) to start the fourth set before DeSales mounted a comeback.  Back-to-back service aces was part of run in which the Bulldogs win 10-of-12 points to take a 13-12 lead. The fourh set remained tight and was tied at 19 when DSU scored three straight points to take a 22-19 lead and six of the final seven points to win 25-20 to force a fifth set.

It was back-and-forth to start the fifth set before Lebanon Valley took an 8-6 lead.  DeSales scored three straight points after two straight errors forcing an LVC timeout with DSU leading 9-8.  Tied at nine, senior Samantha Worontzoff had a kill, following by back-to-back kills from Signorella and junior Joy Kindall to give DSU a 12-9 lead. The Bulldogs led 14-10 and after the Flying Dutchmen got within two, Signorella finished it off with a blast for her 19th kill of the match to give DSU the comeback win, 15-12.

Signorella finished with a team-high 19 kills, hitting .343 and added 14 digs and two blocks.  Reimer was just behind her with 16 kills, hitting .317 and also adding two blocks.  

Senior Paige Lewis had an efficient 10 kills and hit .500 and Worontzoff totaled five blocks in the win.  Kindall finished with seven kills and three blocks.

First-year Veda Doxzen led the way with 31 assists and sophomore Bryanna Purisima handed out 15, while first-year Kylie Campbell had 20 digs.

The Bulldogs are back in action on Saturday when they travel to Drew University for a tri-match with Union College.