MORRISVILLE, NY- For the first time in school history, the Penn State Abington women's volleyball team will compete in the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) championship tomorrow afternoon against the two time champion Morrisville State. The Nittany Lions earned their spot in the final after a thrilling 3-2 win over Penn State Harrisburg this afternoon.
 
In the first set, Harrisburg and Abington dueled but Harrisburg came out on top in a close 26-24 defeat. The Nittany Lions responded in the second set with an early 5-0 lead, able to escape with the 25-20 victory. Harrisburg had their biggest lead of the day by defeating Abington 25-18 in set three. Determined to keep their season alive, Abington fought viciously in the fourth set 25-22, to force a fifth and final set.
 
Earlier this season, Abington went four sets with Harrisburg at home, but fell to the Lady Lions 3-1. Today, Abington put their blood, sweat, and tears in the fifth set, firing 10 of their 15 points off of monstrous kills. Seven of those ten came from the NEAC Rookie of the Year, Katharine Costello (New Hope, PA) who helped Abington to a 15-7 historic victory.
 
This was Abington's second highest scoring game of the season with a total of 72 points, and senior Cortney Schwar (Annandale, NJ) earned a season high with 53 assits.. Abington's offense was led by Katie Costello who finished the night with 34 kills, 13 digs, and 3 blocks. Behind her was sophomore Jenny McAnaney (Maple Glen, PA) who earned 24 kills and 24 digs. Samantha Link (Southampton, PA) finished with five kills and one ace for the Nittany Lions, while libero Gaby Shreve (Marshall, MI) ended the day with 14 digs and 6 assists. Pamala Dayley (Twin Falls, ID) and Angie Tabares (Hackensack, NJ) each contributed a pair of blocks in today's team win.
 
Tomorrow Abington will face Morrisville State College at 1:00pm in the NEAC Championship.