Up until July of this year, Leanne Piscotty was working as a dog groomer on Wertzville Road.

Four years prior to that, before getting married and moving back to her central Pennsylvania roots, she was known as Leanne Kling, a former All-America volleyball player at Penn State who had been a John Travers Award winner while an outstanding high school athlete at Shippensburg.

In mid-July she was hired to fill the recently opened position of volleyball coach at Shippensburg University.

Apparently it’s been a good fit.

Shippensburg (20-14) won the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East Division last weekend and will move into this weekend’s six-team PSAC event at Lock Haven as the top-seeded team from the East.

“I really haven’t had time to deal with administrative details in this short of a time,” said Piscotty. “My strength is teaching the game in the gym. We hope to surprise some teams who maybe didn’t think we’d be here for this.”

Joining Shippensburg in the PSAC field are top-seeded host Lock Haven (23-3), Clarion (29-7), IUP (25-9), Millersville (16-15) and East Stroudsburg (16-16).

Piscotty admits only winning the PSAC title this weekend would allow the Red Raiders to extend their postseason.

“We didn’t play a strong regional schedule so I’m sure we’re considered a bit of a fluke,” she said. “I think we got a lot out of this team. I really didn’t know what to expect when I took this position. I couldn’t be happier with the way things have worked out.”

And, with just a little more future grooming, who knows just how good Shippensburg’s volleyball program might become?

Head coach Leanne Piscotty was named as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division Coach of the Year while senior Alyssa Kilgore and sophomore Missy Pierce were named to the Eastern Division First Team.

Piscotty guided the Lady Raiders to the PSAC tournament for the first time since 2000, leading them to a 21-15 record, the program’s first 20-win season since 1992. Shippensburg also won its first Eastern Division championship since 1992 and advanced to the PSAC tournament championship match for the first time since 1990.

Alyssa Kilgore finished her career as arguably the best player in team history, totaling 1,339 kills and 1,362 digs, both school records. Kilgore is the first player in school history to total over 1,000 career kills and over 1,000 digs in a career.

Missy Pierce finished second on the team in kills and set a new single-season school record for digs, leading the team with 512 to become the first player to total over 500 digs in a season. Pierce has 847 career digs which is currently fourth in team history.