IUP Sweeps Slippery Rock, Advances to NCAA Atlantic Region Semifinals

Boxscore

IUP defeated Slippery Rock in three games to advance to the NCAA Atlantic Regional tournament semifinal round for the fifth consecutive season.

The Indians improved to 25-10 with their 30-25, 30-26, 30-21 victory.  Slippery Rock finished its season at 24-10.  The teams had split their two regular season matches.

With the opening round victory, IUP reached the 25-win plateau for the fifth time in the past six years.  The Indians have a record of 159-60 during that span.

IUP will play top-seeded and host Lock Haven in Friday's second semifinal at 7:30.  The Lady Eagles were a 3-0 winner over North Carolina Central in their first round match.

The first semifinal will feature Edinboro against surprise qualifier Lees-McRae.  Edinboro defeated Mount Olive in the first match of the tournament, and Lees-McRae rallied from a two-game deficit to stun PSAC tournament champion California.

Brittany Gates led IUP to the win over Slippery Rock with 17 kills, a hitting percentage of .500 and four blocks.  Trisha Gerus added eight kills and six blocks.  Both Gates and Gerus were named to the PSAC West all-star team on Wednesday.

Kelly Wolff contributed 10 kills and seven digs.  Heather Bauer matched Gerus with six blocks while making seven kills.  Alicia Koches handed out 40 assists and recorded five digs.

Jill Bixler led the IUP defense with 14 digs while Krista Nordby and Carri Cole both had 10.  Nordby also had three service aces.

Lindsay Weber had 13 kills for Slippery Rock, two more than Jen Blasko.