Westmoreland County Campus Clippings: Seton Hill women's basketball team headed to Montana

The Seton Hill women’s basketball team will open the season earlier than usual, and more than halfway across the country.

After last season was canceled because of the covid pandemic, the Griffins are stretching out and hitting the road.

The team will get things started at the D2CAA Tip-Off Classic Friday through Sunday at Montana State in Billings, Mont.

The Griffins will play three games in three days, facing Tampa, Simon Fraser and the University of Mary. They planned to leave Wednesday morning and fly back Sunday.

The tournament is exempt from the 28-game maximum, so the Griffins will go from zero games in 2020 to 31 this season.

‘This is an amazing opportunity to play additional games against high level competition in a part of our country many of us have never been,” Griffins coach Mark Katarski said. “It’s amazing the places a little orange basketball will take you.”

Seton Hill also will play in the PSAC/CIAA Challenge at IUP Nov. 13-14 against Livingstone and Virginia State.

The Griffins will continue the tournament theme when they host the Tri-State Thanksgiving Classic Nov. 20-21. Tiffin and Salem will be in town.

PSAC play begins Dec. 3-4.

Women’s volleyball

Pitt-Greensburg: Senior Alexis Ray had a team-high 19 kills and four blocks, while sophomore Taylor Logan had 30 assists and sophomore Abigail Lescalette 36 digs as UPG ended the season on a winning note with a 3-2 victory over Medaille.

Slippery Rock: Junior Stephanie O’Donnell (Penn-Trafford) has played in 16 matches for the Rock and has delivered 39 kills, three aces, 18 digs and 37 blocks.

Saint Vincent: The Bearcats (9-17, 6-12) closed the season with a 3-2 win over Washington & Jefferson as junior Carly Augustine (Latrobe) had 15 kills, 14 digs and 25 assists, senior Caitlyn Figuly had 12 kills and three blocks, and sophomore Luciana Polk had 24 digs.

Westminster: Senior Samantha Kelly (Penn-Trafford) had a match-high 27 assists and four service aces as Westminster blanked Chatham, 3-0, to finish PAC play with an 18-0 record. The team has won 26 straight conference matches. The Titans (26-4) will be the top seed in the PAC Tournament and will have a first-round bye.

Men’s cross country

Saint Vincent: The Bearcats ran to a second-place finish at the PAC Championship in Gibsonia, placing five runners in the top 13 spots of the 99-man field. Sophomore Tim Patterson finished fifth with a time of 27 minutes, 37 seconds, while sophomore John Hurley came in seventh in 27:54.

Women’s cross country

Pitt-Greensburg: Sophomore Madison Stonbraker earned All-AMCC honors with a top-15 finish at the conference championships. She ran a time of 31 minutes, 45.36 seconds to finish 13th.

Women’s swimming

Saint Vincent: Two Bearcats swimmers earned weekly conference honors. Junior Lauren Connors was named swimmer of the week after she won three events in a 114-118 loss at Allegheny. Connors took the 100-yard backstroke (1 minute, 94 seconds), 200 backstroke (2:13.35) and 200 individual medley (2:17.21). She also swam a leg of the runner-up 200 medley relay (1:54.28). Freshman Sarah Alexander, meantime, won the 1,000 freestyle (11:31.76) and was second in the 500 freestyle (5:37.62).

Washington & Jefferson: Senior Kimber Randolph (Hempfield) and sophomore Amanda Graves (Penn-Trafford) contributed to the 200-yard medley relay team’s victory in 1 minute, 58.39 seconds — the fastest time in the event in the program since 2017 — as W&J fell to Westminster, 152-136.

Westminster: Junior Baylee Horvath (Franklin Regional) won the 50-yard freestyle in 26.22 seconds as the Titans downed Washington & Jefferson, 152-136.