PITTSBURGH, Pa. (pacathletics.org) - The Bethany College volleyball team won its second consecutive Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Volleyball Tournament title by taking a 3-1 victory (25-17, 28-26, 16-25, 25-12) over Chatham University in Pittsburgh Saturday night.

The PAC crown is the second consecutive for Bethany and fourth in program history. The Bison also won conference championships in 2016, 2018 and 2022. 

The opening set was even at 6-6 before the Bison used a run to build a comfortable lead. Consecutive kills by the Bison's Sydney Kirker and Riley Felton capped an 8-2 run that gave Bethany a 14-8 advantage. The Cougars trimmed the deficit to four on several occasions, but the Bison, aided again by kills from Kirker and Felton, scored three of the final four points in the set to win 25-17 and take a 1-0 lead.

In set two, Chatham made a furious rally late in the set to try to even the match. The Cougars opened with a 4-1 lead fueled by aces from Alyssa Leskovac and Meghan Dominek. Bethany responded by scoring five straight to take the lead and kept building on that momentum, following an assisted block by Felton and Destiny Goodnight, the Bison lead stood at 19-12. The Cougars roared back with eight of the next nine points. Four attack errors helped the Chatham cause, as did kills by Becca Gesner and Jessica Taney and when Gesner and Taney teamed for a block, the set was suddenly even at 20-20. 

Bethany forged a 24-22 lead, but the Cougars not only fought off two set points and after scoring three straight, had their own set point at 25-24. The Bison answered back with two straight and then after a Cougar point, used consecutive kills by Kirker and Felton again to complete the 28-26 set-two win for a 2-0 advantage.

The third set was controlled by the Cougars from the outset. Chatham scored the first five points and their lead grew to as large as 10 in the set at 20-10. A kill from Amelia Bogovich completed the 25-16 set for the Cougars and sent the match to a fourth set.

The Bison completely flipped momentum in the fourth set and dominated from start to finish to close out the win and their PAC title. A Felton kill made it a 5-2 Bethany lead and then four straight errors extended the Bison lead to 9-2. The Cougars managed to get within 10-6, but the Bison took over from there, closing the set with a 15-6 surge. A kill by Olivia Koehler brought Bethany to match point and Goodnight closed out the victory with her team-leading 13th kill in the match to complete the Bison's repeat.

In addition to Goodnight's 13 kills, Kirker and Koehler both registered 10 apiece in the win, while Alaina Torres set up the offense with 41 assists. In addition toe Goodnight's offensive work at the net, she also totaled four blocks, while the backrow defense was spearheaded by three with double-digit digs, including Caroline Mercer (18), Asia Crim (16) and Anna Taylor (15).

Felton finished the night with eight kills, five digs and three blocks in the win and was named the PAC Tournament's Most Outstanding Player. 

For Chatham, Jena Williams had a match-high 14 kills, while Ava Plunkard passed out 19 assists. Defensively, Dominik brought up 25 digs, while Leskovac had 19 digs along with four aces.

With the victory, Bethany has earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Bison will find out their NCAA destination on Monday.