Kent State senior libero Challen Geraghty became the top-ranked defensive player in school history on Saturday when she ran down 29 kills, bringing her career total up to 2,172. That surpassed Laura Jensen for the school’s all-time lead. Jensen, who started for 4 years for the Golden Flashes, recorded 2,167 digs from 2004-2007.
The historic mark for Geraghty came in a 3-2 loss to MAC does Miami at home in front of 549 fans. That loss dropped the Golden Flashes to just 2-13 this season. Geraghty’s back-row defense kept Kent St. competitive in the match in spite of being out-blocked 20-6.5.
Geraghty entered the season with 1,880 digs and has already recorded 292 at about the midpoint of this season (5.73/set). That puts her on pace to match her career-best sophomore season, where she put together 660 digs. While there’s other players on chase for the top 25 of all-time this season, Geraghty would only need 229 more digs to catch former Delaware digger Stephanie Barry, who ranked 25th in NCAA history coming into the season. If she can pull out another 292 digs in the back-half of the season, she should earn a spot in the NCAA all-time record book, which ranks down to 25th, at the end of the season.
Kent St. senior outside hitter Kelsey Bittinger is also moving up the school’s all-time career rankings in the category. With 18 digs of her own on Saturday, she now has 1,172 in her career – good for 7th on the all-time list.
Kent St. All-Time Top 10 in Digs, Through 9/30:
- 2,172 – Challen Geraghty (2014-Present)
- 2,167 – Laura Jensen (2004-2007)
- 1,416 – Larisa Gribergs (1993-1996)
- 1,287 – Hannah Herc (2010-2013)
- 1,233 – Danielle Holt (2002-2005)
- 1,217 – Kristen Barr (2007-2010)
- 1,172 – Kelsey Bittinger (2014-present)
- 1,150 – Lauren Jones (2007-2010)
- 1,115 – Carrie Patterson (1996-1999)
- 1,068 – Carrie McEnery (1997-2000)
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