Women’s Volleyball had a big week, gritting through two matches of five sets each. On Tuesday night, the Hilltoppers handed West Virginia State University (20-3) their first loss in the conference. However, Friday night, Black and Gold dropped a close match against the University of Charleston (14-7).

The Hilltoppers had a rocky start against West Virginia State on Tuesday, losing the first set 13-25. West Liberty rallied back narrowly winning the next two sets 27-25 and 26-24. The Hilltoppers struggled again in the fourth set, taking a loss of 15-25, but came out with a fire in the fifth set, taking the game 15-12.

Head Coach Riley Schenk partially attributed this win to the quantity of big momentum plays her team pulled off against West Virginia State which kept the team “fired up.” Schenk also said that aggressive serving allowed them to take an early lead in the final winning set.

Junior Kirsten Bogunovich led the team in both kills and assists with 17 and 35 respectively. Freshman Haley Zeck and sophomore Laura Gamel followed behind her with 18 and seven assists respectively. Bogunovich and Gamel both tied for the third highest amount of digs on the team at nine. While sophomores Nyia Setla and Katelynn Fritz led with 31 and 19 digs respectively. Fritz also rounded out the third highest number of kills shared with freshman Riley Cudnik at 10 kills with graduate student Maddie Clayton ahead at 13 kills.

Friday night was another up and down game for the Toppers in Charleston, W.Va. Charleston took the first set 25-20, but West Liberty fought back to take the second game in a nail biter, 28-26. Charleston set the pace in the third set, winning 25-17. The Hilltoppers then rallied back to win 25-22 before Charleston could take the last set 7-15.

Schenk said, “when we were in system and able to run a spread dynamic offense, we were the better team.” However, she said that Charleston was the more aggressive serving team, managing to throw the Hilltoppers out of system more often than the Black and Gold could return the favor. Being in system more often allowed Charleston to make the big plays that won them the game, said Schenk.

Still, the Toppers did beat Charleston with their net play, having nine blocks compared to Charleston’s eight. Clayton led the Toppers in blocks being a part of seven of those nine blocks. Clayton also led the team in kills at 17. Bogunovich followed behind with 12 kills then junior Nina Billotto and senior MacKenzie Daub with ten and six kills respectively. Bogunovich also racked up some assists leading the team with 31 followed by Gamel with 20. As per usual, libero Setla led the team in digs at 22 followed by Jenna Caskey and Katelynn Fritz at 17 and 15 respectively.

The Lady Hilltoppers will be back in the ASRC to play Davis and Elkins College on Friday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. and the following morning, West Virginia Wesleyan College at 11 a.m. For more information visit HilltopperSports.com.