WHEELING, WV – The Fighting Scots punched their ticket to the NCAA Atlantic Region semifinals tomorrow for the first time since the 2011 season with a 3-2 (14-25, 25-17, 19-25, 26-24, 15-13) win over Shippensburg on Friday afternoon at the Alma Grace McDonough Center. Friday's meeting marked the eighth consecutive meeting the PSAC rivals needed five sets to decide a winner and for the second time this season it was Edinboro that emerged victorious. Win the win, Edinboro improved to 24-8 overall while the Raiders end their season with a 26-8 mark.
 
With a revamped lineup due to injuries, head coach Missy Soboleski's squad was making their ninth appearance in the NCAA Tournament in her 12 years at the helm. Sophomore Megan Screptock started the game at libero rather than her normal outside hitter spot due to an injury.
 
"We were hoping that she [Screptock] could make it through the match and it just wasn't going to happen for her," said Soboleski. "We're definitely beat up, we're three down right now. We have three of our potential starters on the bench … that's a struggle with us just to try to stay healthy."
 
The two teams traded dominant victories in the first two sets with Shippensburg opening the day with a 25-14 win before the Fighting Scots tied the match with a 25-17 victory in the second set. The Raiders took the next set, 25-19, to put the Fighting Scots on the brink of elimination. With their backs against the wall and true to their name, Edinboro fought back in the fourth set to win in extra points, 26-24, before prevailing in the deciding fifth set 15-13.
 
Soboleski reflected on what she felt was the deciding factor in the match, "we were able to control it well enough [the ball] and play good defense. That's probably the best I've seen my team play all year. They really had a lot of heart and it was a fun match to be a part of."
 
The Fighting Scots offense was led by the senior duo of Victoria Severo and Latoya Hutchinson. Severo paced the attack with 16 kills on 44 attempts for a .341 hitting percentage while Hutchinson finished with 13 kills on 27 attempts and a team-high .444 hitting percentage. Hutchinson pushed her career kill total to 987, just 13 shy of joining the 1,000-kill club.
 
The Edinboro attack flowed through junior setter Sydney Trathen's game-high 49 assists. Fellow junior Challen Litwiler added nine kills and 27 digs while sophomore Hannah Cantrill contributed eight kills and 13 digs. Seeing her first extended action of the season due to a hobbled Screptock, sophomore Morgyn Sharp finished with seven kills. Screptock served as the libero for the first set of the contest, totaling four digs, before sitting out the rest of the game.
 
Freshman Jordan Van Oss finished with 11 digs and Severo made her presence felt on the defensive side as well, totaling five block assists. Cantrill, Hutchinson, and Trathen each totaled two block assists apiece.
 
Annie Goerl led a quartet of Raiders in double-figures, finishing with a game-high 21 kills. Gabriella Johnson added 13 kills while Rebecca Pryor and Morgan DeFloria finished with 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Maura Nolan dished out 48 assists and Maria Peluso finished with 20 digs to lead Shippensburg.
 
Edinboro will take the court against the winner of the Gannon-Fairmont State contest later this afternoon. The Fighting Scots were swept by the Golden Knights this season and finished one game behind them in the regular season PSAC standings. Edinboro also met Fairmont State earlier this season, sweeping the Fighting Falcons, 3-0.
 
On the potential for a showdown with Gannon, Soboleski explained that "obviously we'd love another crack at Gannon … it doesn't matter who we play we're going to focus on our side of the court."