LATROBE, Pa. - The Bethany College women's volleyball team concluded the 2026 Saint Vincent Bearcat Challenge hosted by Saint Vincent (Pa.) College where they fell to Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology by a final score of 3-2 and defeated Carlow (Pa.) University by a final score of 3-0 in the Robert S. Carey Center.
Bethany (2-3) had two more chances to get in the win column at the Bearcat Challenge but had to open up Saturday's slate against a tough RIT (3-2) team. The Tigers came out hot in the first two sets but the Bison did not back down as they battled to win sets three and four to force a deciding fifth set. The Green and White took a commanding 8-2 lead in the final set and were just a few points from completing the reverse sweep before RIT came back to win it. However, the Bison had one more shot against Carlow (0-3) where they were nearly unstoppable as the team returns to the Northern Panhandle with a victory.
After the Challenge, graduate middle blocker
Megan Chesser (Grove City, Ohio/Bishop Ready) was named to the weekend's All-Tournament Team.
vs. RIT
- Junior Academic All-PAC right-side hitter Shayleigh Hornyak (Brilliant, Ohio/Buckeye Local) went off for a career-high 11 kills while also putting up two solo blocks
- Sophomore setter Aleia Evanko (East Liverpool, Ohio/Beaver Local) recorded 14 assists, seven digs, and two aces in her Green and White debut
- Senior Academic All-PAC libero Avery Askew (St. Thomas, Ontario/Parkside Collegiate Institute) posted a career-high in digs with 22 and added eight service aces and six assists
- Graduate middle blocker Megan Chesser (Grove City, Ohio/Bishop Ready) put down eight kills in her second straight game and blocked two Tiger attacks
- Sophomore outside hitter Isabella Poppelriter (Wellsville, Ohio) had a match-high eight service aces and tied freshman outside hitter Molly Brown (Lancaster, Ohio/Fairfield Union) for the team lead in digs with nine
- Sophomore Academic All-PAC setter Grace Padavick (Cleveland, Ohio/Padua Franciscan) also tallied 14 assists with five digs
- Junior Academic All-PAC middle blocker Ashton Thomas (Toronto, Ohio) finished with six kills, three digs, two assists, and one block
vs. Carlow
- Sophomore middle blocker Adison Ketchum (Lisbon, Ohio/Beaver Local) had two kills, two blocks, and a dig in her first match as a Bison
- Sophomore Academic All-PAC outside hitter Analesa Perdue (Steubenville, Ohio) and Hornyak each notched five kills for the Green and White
- Padavick and Evanko each tallied 11 more assists while adding six digs and four digs on the defensive side of the net, respectively
- Brown ended her tournament by tying a team-high six kills with six digs
- Poppelriter led the team with nine digs and tied Evanko for the team lead in service aces with four
- Askew totaled a match-high 14 digs against the Celtics and assisted four times
- Chesser finished with a statline of a team-high six kills, three digs, three block assists, and one service ace
The Bison are back in action on Friday, September 11 as they open the Sommer Center Spiketacular hosted by Bluffton (Ohio) University. Bethany will take on The University of Olivet (Mich.) at 6 p.m. on Friday, and on Saturday, will face off against the host Bluffton at 10 a.m. and Heidelberg (Ohio) University at 12:30 p.m. in the Sommer Center.
