LAKEWOOD, NJ (Oct. 28, 2024) - Georgian Court Volleyball wrapped up their nonconference portion of their schedule in emphatic fashion with a sweep of West Chester Monday night. The Lions won by sets of 25-17, 25-16 and 25-20, leading for much of the match. With the win, the Lions improve to a season-best five games over .500 at 13-8 while remaining 9-1 in the CACC.

How it Happened
• Aside from a 1-0 West Chester lead in set one and some small leads at the outset of set two, this match was all Lions. It featured just eight ties and five lead changes, all but one of each coming in the second set.
• West Chester hit just .096 and struggled keeping the ball on the court, hitting 19 attack errors with 28 kills. The Lions meanwhile hit .265 for the match with 39 kills. 
• The service line was another big advantage for GCU. They were a total of +6 at the line, leading in aces 9-4 and hit one fewer error, 7-6.
• Georgian Court also put back five more blocks than the Golden Rams, 9-4.
Set 1
• West Chester scored the very first point of the match with a block up the middle, but the Lions responded with five straight and never trailed again in the set. 
• The Golden Rams kept things close, getting to within three on a handful of occasions.
• At 14-11, Georgian Court used a 5-2 run to push the lead to six, 19-13. Nylene Mateo had a pair of kills and a service ace during the spurt.
• Georgian Court finished the set scoring six of the final eight points, with a pair of Chelsea Ross and Emily Hauptvogel blocks and Carmen Rivera's service ace finished things off for a 1-0 match lead.
Set 2
• The second set was the closest of the three, but once GCU had a lead, they never looked back.
• Except for a brief 7-5 Lion lead, every points from 1-8 was tied.
• A kill from Giorgia Cappelletti started a 7-2 GCU run where they poured it on to go up as much as five, 15-10.
• The Lions led by at least four the rest of the way and another Rivera ace closed out the set, 25-16.
Set 3
• It looked like the Lions were going to roll to a sweep getting up 8-1 in the third set.
• West Chester was having trouble keeping the ball alive hitting three straight attack errors.
• Following a timeout though, West Chester got back to within three, 8-5 and forced a Lion timeout.
• They got things down to two, 9-7, but another GCU run, this time 6-1, pushed the lead back to seven, 15-8.
• But again the Golden Rams responded, this time scoring six straight, including using their head for a kill, and made it a one-point game, 15-14.
• Chelsea Ross broke the scoring run with a kill to keep GCU ahead.
• Still just a two-point game at 21-19, the Lions finished the match scoring four of the last five and this time it was a service error that ended things, 25-20.

Lion Stat Leaders
• Nylene Mateo scored 18 points with 13 kills and four service aces along with 11 digs for a double-double.
• Chelsea Ross finished with nine kills and four blocks.
• Giorgia Cappelletti was in double-figures with 10 kills.
• Carmen Rivera was everywhere averaging six digs per set and landed two service aces.
• Iciar Zayas led the Lions with 19 assists while Dayna Diaz added 15.
• Emily Hauptvogel had a team-best five blocks along with three kills. 

For the Golden Rams
• They spread the ball around with Julia Kwitchoff leading the team with six kills.
• Lexy Caltabiano, Anna Richardson and Zoe Haines each totaled five. 
• Lacie Brown paced the offense with 21 assists along with three kills and seven digs.
• Zoe Brown had a team-best eight digs.

News and Notes
• Georgian Court improves to 4-10 all-time against the Golden Rams.
• Dayna Diaz passed out her 800th career assist while Nylene Mateo collected her 800th dig. 
• Chelsea Ross moved to fourth all-time in Lions history in total blocks.
• This is the first time all season the Lions have played four straight three-set matches. The last time that happened was five straight, Sept. 6-17 of the 2022 season.
• Georgian Court finished up their nonconference schedule at 4-7.

Up Next
• Georgian Court is on the road for the next two, starting with a return trip to Chestnut Hill Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m.