SALISBURY, Md. – The Salisbury University volleyball team delivered head coach
Kendall Jacobsen a victory in her first game at the helm, opening the 2025 season with a commanding 3-0 (25-11, 25-9, 25-9) sweep of the Penn State Altoona Nittany Lions on Friday afternoon at the Maggs Physical Activities Center.
The Sea Gulls stormed out of the gate with six of the first eight points, three via
Kiley McTaggart kill. From there SU put the opening set in hand with an 8-0 run to balloon the lead to 16-5. Up 20-11 later on,
Maura Fay kept a rally alive with a deflection off her head and eventually brought the hammer down for the point, sparking a 5-0 run to put it away 25-11.
Salisbury kept the heat up in the second set, racing out to a 10-1 lead thanks in part to three kills from Fay. The Nittany Lions could never find their footing, and SU took a two-set lead, 25-9, via a service error.
After spotting PSA the first two points of set three, the Sea Gulls blitzed ahead with a 12-0 run, capped by a tag-team stuff from
Gwen Eustace and McTaggart. SU went up by as many as 18-4 in the fixture and closed by scoring the final four points, riding a
Sadie Wilkinson kill to the 25-9 margin and a sweep.
GAME NOTES
- Maura Fay lit up the court in her collegiate debut, powering down 16 kills at a sky-high .520 hitting clip.
- Gwen Eustace swung .727 for the match en route to nine kills. She also notched five blocks (two solo) and landed one of SU's nine service aces.
- Kiley McTaggart powered nine kills with four blocks.
- Julie Altieri served up 33 assists while chasing down four digs and dealing two aces.
- Prudence Marco paced the back line with 16 digs, plus three assists.
- Elizabeth Villegas chased down 12 digs and led the team with three aces.
- The Sea Gulls hit .379 as a team with 43 kills against 10 errors, clearing .400 in the first and third sets.
- SU won the blocking battle 7-1 and dealt nine service aces without surrendering one.
- Salisbury has now won 13 consecutive home matches dating back to Oct. 28, 2023.
- The Sea Gulls remain undefeated in their annual Margie Knight Classic, which is now in its third season. SU went 3-0 in the season-opening tournament in both 2023 and 2024.
The Sea Gulls will wrap up the Margie Knight Classic with a pair of matches on Saturday. Salisbury will open the day against Thiel at 10 a.m., then at 4 p.m. the Gulls will square off against sixth-ranked Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
Salisbury University is a proud member of NCAA Division III with primary membership in the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference, along with affiliate membership in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (football, men's & women's swimming), Coastal Lacrosse Conference (men's lacrosse), State University of New York Athletic Conference (field hockey), and Colonial Women's Golf Conference (women's golf). With over 500 student-athletes in 23 varsity sports, SU is recognized as one of the nation's most competitive intercollegiate athletics programs regardless of division, featuring dedicated coaches and staff that foster excellence on and off the field. The Sea Gulls have won a combined 23 team national championships, 24 individual national championships, and 205 conference championships, and have produced 53 Academic All-Americans.
To Make Tomorrow Yours at Salisbury University, and learn more about Sea Gull Athletics' tradition of excellence, visit SUSeaGulls.com or follow on social media @SUSeaGulls.
