Point Park outlasted by Shawnee State, Gulakowski surpasses 1,000 assists

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio -- Point Park University volleyball nearly pulled off the reverse sweep but was outlasted by Shawnee State (Ohio), 3-2, in a River States Conference volleyball match on Friday night. 

The Pioneers won the third and fourth sets to come back from a 2-0 deficit, but the Bears hung on for the win in the fifth, 15-11. Match scores in favor of SSU were 25-17, 25-12, 23-25, 25-13, 15-11. 

Point Park continues the road trip Saturday at (RV) IU East for another RSC match at 3:00 p.m. ET. 

The Pioneers were facing a possible end to the match when they trailed in the third set, 23-22. But Eden McElhaney's kill was the first of three straight points for the visitor as Point Park turned the tables. Amanda Contois finished off the set with a kill to extend the match. 

The momentum carried over to the fourth where Point Park had an 8-2 lead. The Pioneers were later up 21-11 before they scored four straight points to end the set and move to the fifth. 

Point Park faced a 4-0 deficit in the fifth but did not go down easily. In fact, the Pioneers scored the next five points for a 5-4 lead. Some big points had SSU go in front, 10-6. Although Point Park battled back to tie it at 10-10, the Bears had enough to hold off the Pioneers. 

Point Park had 32 of its 49 total kills in the third and fourth sets. They posted 16 kills in each of those frames and hit .333 in the fourth. Contois put up 13 kills, and McElhaney had 12. Haley Stormer chipped in eight kills while Giulia Follador and Mariah Perez had seven each. 

Ashlynn Gulakowski totaled 25 assists for the Pioneers, which put her over the 1,000-career assist milestone combined between Cal U and Point Park. Gulakowski now has 1,018 career assists, which includes 910 the last two years at Point Park. 

Elise Wallace dished out 13 assists to move within range of the same milestone as she now as 979 in her fourth year with the Pioneers. 

Defensively, Kenzie Zauner picked up 25 digs with McElhaney and Lily Marchand collecting 16 apiece. 

Shawnee State had a couple of big perfomances at the net with Kylee Barney registering 16 kills and five blocks while hitting .438. Megan Steele had 15 kills and hit .452. That duo for the Bears had just three combined attack errors on the night. Makaela Lovely posted 29 assists and 24 digs.