YORK, PA. – The York College volleyball team split a pair of matches on Saturday in York, losing their first match to the Salisbury University Sea Gulls 3-0 and winning their second match against the Lycoming College Warriors 3-1.

With the split, the Spartans finish the season with a record of 13-18 and 3-6 in conference play. The Sea Gulls improved to 22-7 on the season and 8-1 in conference play and have now won eight matches in a row and 15 of their last 16. With two losses on the day, the Warriors drop to 17-14 overall.

In the first set, the Sea Gulls and Spartans played evenly for the first half of the set. Then, trailing 13-11, the Seagulls went on a 13-2 run to take a commanding 24-15 lead. After surrendering a point to the Spartans, the Sea Gulls won the next point to win the set 25-16.

Through the first few points of the second set, it looked like the Spartans would be able to bounce back. But the Sea Gulls then went on an 8-0 run to take a 10-2 lead. The Spartans would fight back with a 4-1 run to cut the deficit to 11-6. After the Sea Gulls went on a 6-2 run to take a 20-11 lead, the Spartans went on a 7-1 spurt, which also included five straight points at one point, to trail 21-18. The Sea Gulls won four of the next five points, however, to take the second set 25-19.

The Sea Gulls kept up their tough play in the third set. A 5-1 early run gave Salisbury a 6-3 lead. The Spartans tried to get back into the set when they went on a 4-1 spurt to trail just 14-13 but the Sea Gulls answered quickly with a 5-1 run of their own to push the lead up to 19-14. The Spartans did everything they could to get back into it by going on a 4-1 run to trail 24-21. However, Salisbury won the next point to finish the set and the match.

Brooke Krebs (Hanover, Pa. / New Oxford) and Sarah Figgs (Middletown, Del. / Appoquinimink) led the Spartans offense in the first match. Krebs finished with a team-high nine kills with an attack percentage of .176 while Figgs finished with eight kills and a team-high .192 attack percentage. Sarah Wukitch (East Greenville, Pa. / Southern Lehigh) led the Spartans with 17 assists and also recorded the lone Spartan service ace. Katherine Graziano (Elkridge, Md. / Archbishop Spalding) was the defensive anchor with 16 digs.

The Spartans finished the first match with just 23 kills on a .068 attack percentage and seven service errors.

The Spartans didn't look too good to begin the second match as they dropped the first seven points and eight of the first ten. But they came back with a vengeance. Trailing 11-5, the Spartans used a 4-0 spurt to cut into the Warrior lead. Later on, the Spartans went on a 10-3 run to take the lead 22-19. The Spartans would take the first set 25-22.

In the second set, the Warriors won the first four points and seven of the first ten. But just like in the first set, the Spartans fought back hard. The Spartans were able to limit the Warriors to no more than one point at a time and, with the help of a 4-0 run, ended up taking a 15-14 lead. Lycoming was able to string together two separate 4-1 runs to take a 23-20 lead. The Warriors won the second set 25-22.

For the third set in a row, the Spartans dropped the first four points of the set. But, like the other two sets, they fought back. After losing the first four points, the Spartans won eight of the next ten points to take an 8-6 lead. Then, leading 12-11, the Spartans went on their second 10-3 run of the match to give them a comfortable 22-14 lead. Each team exchanged points the rest of the set and the Spartans won the third set 25-17.

The fourth set was the most evenly matched set of the match as the teams were tied 13 times which was more than the previous three sets combined (11). With the set tied 16-16, the Spartans used a 12-3 run to finish off the Warriors and take the fourth set 25-17.

Krebs and Figgs had career days. Krebs set a new single-game career-high in kills with 17 to go along with a .486 attack percentage and 19 digs on defense. Figgs also set a career-high in kills with 16 which broke her previous career-high of eight that she set in the first match of the day. In addition, Figgs set a career-high in attack percentage with a .293 which broke her previous best of .192, also set in the first match of the day. Wukitch finished the second match with a team-high 43 assists to go along with three service aces and ten digs.

The Spartans finished the second match with 49 kills on a .248 attack percentage, seven service aces, and 71 digs.

In addition to Graziano, Saturday's matches closed out the careers for Spartan seniors Alison Dorsey (Elkridge, Md. / Long Reach) and Lindsay Jackson (Goshen, N.Y. / Goshen Central). Graziano finished her career third on the all-time school digs list with 1862 while Dorsey finished sixth on the all-time school blocks list with 259.

Recap written by Will Wallace – Athletic Communications Student Assistant

Sarah Figgs photo courtesy of David Sinclair