DOYLESTOWN (Pa.) – The Delaware Valley University volleyball team dropped its first two sets to visiting Keystone College, but battled back to defeat the Giants 3-2 in non-conference play.
The Aggies improved to 10-8 overall while Keystone dropped to 8-12. The Giants took the first two sets, 25-22 and 25-23, before the Aggies won the next two by identical 25-21 scores. In the fifth and final set, DelVal got out to an early lead and cruised to a 15-3 win.
The Aggies led for most of the first set, including late in the set at 19-17. From there, Keystone scored four-straight and held off DelVal at 23-22 before getting a pair of kills for the set win.
In the second, the Giants jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but the Aggies countered with a 7-1 run to take the lead. Later in the set, DelVal ripped off five-straight behind the serving of Grace Kane to go ahead, 16-12. The Aggies maintained a lead at 22-17, but the Giants rallied for an 8-1 run to close it out and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
DelVal trailed 12-8 in the third before Cat Nemil delivered an ace that sparked a four-point run to tie the set. Nemil helped the Aggies to the set win by serving the final four points, including another ace to get the home team on the board in the match.
In the fourth set, the Aggies scored five-straight points behind the serving of Victoria Tucker to take a 12-9 lead, and they never looked back. They built their lead to seven at 19-12 and cruised to the 25-21 win to force a fifth and final set.
DelVal rode its momentum into the fifth as it scored 13 points in a row to close out the 15-3 win. Emma Helverson served for the final 13 points and had four aces.
For the match, Helverson finished with a game-high six aces to go with two blocks and seven kills. Nemil followed with five aces and dished out 43 assists with 19 digs and a kill. Olivia Deffendall led DelVal in kills with 19 and Gretta Schneider pitched in 12 to go with 15 digs and two aces. Grace Kane reached double-digit kills with 11 and added 11 digs and two aces. As a team, DelVal had 18 aces to Keystone's three.
The Aggies will return to conference play on Wednesday at 7 p.m. when they welcome in Arcadia University.