{"id":940,"date":"2025-09-05T10:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2025\/09\/05\/2025-09-05-womens-volleyball-opens-with-a-sweep-at-battlefield-classic\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:13:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:13:05","slug":"2025-09-05-womens-volleyball-opens-with-a-sweep-at-battlefield-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2025\/09\/05\/2025-09-05-womens-volleyball-opens-with-a-sweep-at-battlefield-classic\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s volleyball opens with a sweep at Battlefield\u00a0Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Mia Gallagher<\/a> · Sports Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a Wolverine winner and 3-0 sweep for the Grove City women’s volleyball team, who opened their season Friday and Saturday at the Gettysburg College Battlefield Classic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With these victories \u2013 including an exciting, come-from-behind victory over Shenandoah \u2013 the team stands ready to face whatever the rest of their challenging non-conference schedule has to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The teams we played this past weekend were very talented and challenged us in numerous ways. We had to adapt to their tough defense and adjust our offense in order to efficiently score, as well as change our serving strategy,” senior setter Brooklyn Wirebaugh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“These challenges were valuable, as I believe they will prepare us for the games ahead \u2013 especially since many of the teams we will face this weekend just began their season, so it is more difficult to prepare for the games. I think we can use the resilience we showed this past weekend and carry it into this weekend, knowing that we can adapt to the potential challenges our opponents present,” Wirebaugh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wolverines opened their weekend of play last Friday against a talented Dickinson team, emerging victorious with a final set score of 3-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leading the team’s offensive effort was junior outside hitter Sarah Hart, who tallied 18 kills on the day. She was followed by classmate Alayna Dorst and sophomore Brooke Manfull, who contributed 11 and eight kills, respectively. Manfull, Wirebaugh and junior Sarah Harris combined for 46 assists, setting the Wolverines offense up for success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defensively, Dorst led the Wolverines in digs, notching 18 on the day. Sophomore Lilly Wojtala was right behind her with 17 digs, while Hart and Manfull supplied another 11 digs apiece. From the net, sophomore Lilly Pool paced the Wolverines with four blocks. Her efforts were aided by Hart, Manfull and junior Kendra Klusch, who produced seven blocks total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It feels great to be able to contribute to our successful weekend. I’m proud of how I played with a new team and I’m so proud of how the team supported each other the whole time,” Hart said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following an early 3-0 victory against Neumann Saturday morning, the Wolverines battled back from a 0-2 deficit against Shenandoah to complete the sweep, winning the final set 15-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pool paced the Wolverines’ offensive effort, securing nine kills in the comeback. Hart and Dorst followed Pool, tallying eight and seven kills apiece. Supporting their efforts were Harris and Wirebaugh, who combined for 27 sets in the outing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the net, junior Lily Lagaras led the defense with five blocks, followed by Pool, who secured four. Dorst and Wirebaugh locked down the back row with a combined 35 digs between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Coming out of this weekend with three wins and knowing I was able to contribute feels incredibly rewarding. We’ve put in so much hard work during preseason \u2013 not just in practices, but also in building chemistry with our newcomers \u2013 so to see all that effort pay off in such a big way is really encouraging,” Wirebaugh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Moving forward, I think continuing to build those bonds, both on and off the court, and being reminded of our ultimate goal in playing the sport, which is for the Lord’s glory, will help us become stronger and help us reach our goals together,” she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After traveling to Oberlin, Ohio this weekend for matchups against Wooster, Oberlin and Adrian, the women’s volleyball team will open their home program Tuesday, Sept. 9 against Carnegie Mellon. The match will be the culmination of the team’s Blood Cancer Awareness campaign, an effort led by Head Coach Leo Sayles to raise funds for the Grove City Cancer Institute. With action beginning at 6 p.m. in the Wolverine Arena, please consider attending the event and supporting all involved in the campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a Wolverine winner and 3-0 sweep for the Grove City women’s volleyball team, who opened their season Friday and Saturday at the Gettysburg College Battlefield Classic. With these victories \u2013 including<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[205],"tags":[70,26,24],"class_list":["post-940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-womens-volleyball","tag-mia-gallagher","tag-issue-2025-09-05","tag-sports"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"It's a Wolverine winner and 3-0 sweep for the Grove City women's volleyball team, who opened their season Friday and Saturday at the Gettysburg College Battlefield Classic. With these victories \u2013 including","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2021,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions\/2021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}