Philadelphia, PA – Volleyball pushes University of the Sciences in Philadelphia to five.

The Lightning Volleyball team traveled to the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia today for a CACC match.  The Lightning, dropping their first meeting of the year with USP 3-0, looked to split the CACC series. 

The Lightning struggled at the beginning of the first set, but climbed back with perfect passing from Christine Hudock and offensive kills from Chantal Pierre and Chalea Johnson.  The Lightning took the first set 25-19. 

The second set was a back and forth battle before the Devils broke out first and took a commanding lead.  Battling back again was the Lightning with strong service-games from AJ Hicks and Roni Shaner.  Unfortunately the Devils took set two 25-22. 

The Lightning seemed to lose their groove in the third set.  Plagued with errors on the Lightning's side the Devils took set three 25-8.

The Lightning forgetting all that happened in the previous set went out on the court for the fourth set wanting to push the match to five with the Devils.  Keeping the set close with Devils the Lightning looked to find a way to break open the game in their favor.  The Lightning again started to produce offensive kills in the set, this time from Chantal Pierre and Amanda Mills.  The Lightning took the fourth set 25-21 and pushed the match to a deciding fifth set.

The Lightning struggled once again in the beginning of the fifth set trying to break the Devils service game.  The Devils took a commanding 7-1 lead in the fifth set before the Lightning could break the serve.  The Lightning pushed back but unfortunately dropped the fifth set 15-8. The loss drops the Lightning to 6-10 overall and 2-7 in the CACC. 

Leading the Lightning was Christine Hudock with 21 digs, while Roni Shaner had 17 set assists, 12 digs, 5 kills, and 2 service aces.  Chantal Pierre recorded 13 kills and 2 solo blocks, AJ Hicks added 15 digs, and Amanda Mills produced 7 kills and 8 digs.

The Lightning next face Georgian Court University on Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 7:00pm in the Joseph West Jones Center.