Chatham University’s women’s volleyball team has wrapped its 2025 season in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) quarterfinals as it fell to Westminster on Nov. 11, one sets to three. This was its eighth season under head coach Joseph Bortak, with a record of 16-9 overall and 11-5 in PAC conference play.
It also was the first season with the new North/South divisional split for volleyball, which will be used in the basketball teams’ upcoming seasons, as well. The Cougars seemed to have the No. 1 seed in the South Division secured until the final-day loss to Washington & Jefferson, which slid them into the No. 2 seed slot on head-to-head, as the teams were tied on the record front. This would see them match up with the No. 3 seed, the Westminster Titans, who would descend from the North Division to come to Pittsburgh to face off with the Cougars for the second time this season.
The last meetup between these two teams was a mirror match of the playoff schedule, with the Cougars defeating the Titans 3-2 on Oct. 11. In this matchup, the Cougars held the Titans to only 67 total points over the five sets, beating them on kills, aces, assists, digs and hitting percentage.
The hope for the Cougars was a repeat victory of their earlier matchup with the Titans, and it seemed to start that way when they claimed five of the first six points. The teams would then trade blows, keeping within two points of one another for the entirety of the first set. With the score at 22-23 in favor of the Titans, the Cougars would score three straight points to win the set, finishing off with an Evelyn White ‘29 ace.
The story would be similar within the second set, with the first 14 points leaving the score at 7-7. This was the closest the team would remain as Westminster rolled the second set to a 25-19 set two, tying the affair at one set apiece. The third and fourth sets followed a similar feeling, early closeness – but the Titans would pull ahead over the course of play.
The Cougars were heavily afflicted by errors throughout the final two sets, leaving them at the hands of defeat one set to three.
“We didn’t finish the way we wanted, but the importance of recognizing that other teams in the conference were in the same boat,” Paige Watson ‘27 said. “I am proud of the season and the freshmen.”
As Bortak put it, Delaney Schwind ‘29, Evie White ‘29 and Maren Balint ‘29 all came in and had a great start as first-year [students]. It was good to see us develop in skll, but the leadership increase was great to see. The commitment level, work level, all seem to be contributing on the court.”
Despite the heartbreak at the depth, the team still performed admirably throughout the long season. Offensively, it racked up a total of 1,032 kills this season, with 233 coming from Rightside Becca Gesner ‘27, who ranked 15th in the entire PAC. The team supplied one another with 973 assists (averaging 10.93 per set), with 460 coming from setter Schwind, who ranked seventh in the conference.
Additionally, the team dominated on the serve this year, with a total of 213 aces, which ranked them first in conference as a team. Schwind supplied 52, the highest by an individual in the conference, and defensive specialist Vanessa Mleczko ‘27 provided 47, which placed her fifth in the conference.
“We had a lot of young new faces in the team who stepped in,” Zoie Bateman ‘27 said. “Both those who did and didn’t play were very helpful at practice and on the sidelines.”
Defensively, the team stood strong, holding opponents to the lowest-hitting percentage in the conference at 0.103 and allowing the fewest aces within conference play. According to Bateman, this was a large part of the team’s atmosphere throughout the season.
“We had such a different drive, ‘no matter what I have to do, I will be getting the next ball.’ We had such a drive to keep them from scoring on us.”
This strong defensive showing was led by Sierra Ricci ‘26, who provided a massive portion of the team’s 1,796 digs, of which she provided 636 on her own. These numbers led her to be first in the PAC and fifth in the NCAA in total digs, while leading both the PAC and NCAA in digs per set.
“It’s super bittersweet. We don’t know Chatham volleyball without [Ricci], Devyn [Kelley], Ava [Plunkard] and Delanie [Kaiser]. It’s definitely going to be different, but I am still excited to go out with a bang,” Watson said.
A large majority of the team will return for next season, including Schwind and White, who played large roles in their first collegiate seasons. Juniors Bateman, Mleczko, Gesner and Watson will also seek to apply their experience and energy to take the team one step forward.