ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - The Bard College women's volleyball team earned a convincing straight sets sweep over Penn State Abington Friday evening, to punctuate a wonderful Senior Night performance.

Set scores for the win were 25-15, 25-15 and 28-26. 

Before the contest began, Victoria Chou and Bari Bossis were honored, as the senior duo kicked off their final weekend wearing the Bard uniform. The pair has played an integral role in the development of the volleyball team over the past four years and will surely be missed on and off the court. To celebrate their achievements, coach Stefanie Carrington took time to speak about each player pregame, while gifts and flowers were presented. 

Following the conclusion of the ceremony, the energy the Raptors had to begin the game was noticeable. The hosts came out on fire, finishing with a .429 hitting percentage and 14 kills in the first set. 

In the second, the two squads played to an 8-8 tie score, before Bard started to pull away. The Raptors proceeded to score 12 of the next 15 points, as the team earned its second straight 25-15 set win. Quality hitting again powered Bard in the frame, as the Raptors collected 11 kills and hit .321 in the set.

In the final set, things finally started to tighten up as neither side had a lead bigger than four points along the way. Early on, the Raptors led 10-7, prior to a rally from the Nittany Lions of Penn State Abington that flipped the deficit to a 14-11 advantage in favor of the guests. 

The Raptors answered right back with six straight points of their own, before a four-point flurry from Penn State Abington pushed the lead back to the guests, 18-17.

After trading points back and forth to an eventual 23-23 tie score, the Raptors forced three match points, before finally breaking through to win on back-to-back kills from Maracela Talamantes and Chou.

For the game, Bard finished with a .300 hitting percentage and 39 kills, while collected more aces, blocks and assists than Penn State Abington. Individually, Talamantes led the way for Bard with 12 kills and four aces. Storm Bookhard added nine kills and Chou recorded seven kills in the win. 

Jewel Smith finished with 30 assists, while Emily Anastasi tallied 16 digs for the Raptors. Bossis added two kills and six digs in her Senior Night outing. 

On the other side, Andia Anderson (Philadelphia, PA) led all players with 18 kills for the Nittany Lions. Cortney Schwar (Annandale, NJ) collected 27 assists in the effort.

Up next for Bard are the final two games of the 2018 season. The Raptors will take on Maritime College tomorrow (10/27) at noon, before wrapping up the year with John Jay College at 2 p.m. You can follow both of those contests right here.