Tartans Reach 20 Wins with Victory Over DeSales

(HUNTINGDON, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University women's volleyball team defeated DeSales University 3-1 on Friday evening in the Wid Guisler Invitational at Juniata College advancing its record to 20-7 on the season. The Tartans won the first two sets before winning the decisive fourth with a hitting percentage of .484.

The Tartans opened the match with a 28-26 win and went on to win the second set 26-24 before dropping the third 26-24 and winning the fourth 25-19.

Junior Ali Celentano (Mission Viejo, Calif./JSerra Catholic) led the team with 18 kills, now needing five kills to reach 1,000 for her career. Senior Senna Parsa (Bellevue, Wash./Newport), who last week reached 1,000 career kills, tallied 14 in the win. Sophomore setter Emily Lawlis (The Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands College Park) picked up 47 assists, as freshman Casey Salandra (Carol Steam, Ill./St. Francis) had nine kills and senior Mary Stadelman (Washington, Pa./Trinity) had eight.

The Tartans made points matter at the net as they totaled 14 block assists and three block solos. Salandra had two of those block solos while Celentano and freshman Jackie Gibbons (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) each had four block assists. Senior Ali Nichols led with 20 digs, as freshman Molly Higgins (Vero Beach, Fla./Vero Beach) and Celentano grabbed 13 digs.

Carnegie Mellon will continue competition at the Wid Guisler Invitational on Saturday with a 1:00 p.m. match against Johns Hopkins and a 5:00 p.m. match against 11th-ranked Juniata.