Despite a late surge in the fourth set and a season-high 18 kills by
Brianna O'Neil, the Fordham Rams were unable to complete a comeback against the La Salle Explorers, falling in five sets at Tom Gola Arena in Philadelphia. Final set scores were 25-15, 22-25, 25-14, 22-25, and 15-6.
The win by La Salle is the first by the Explorers over the Rams since 1998, snapping a 30-match win streak by Fordham. Overall, Fordham is now 2-22 on the year, 2-8 in the Atlantic 10, while La Salle improved to 10-17 on the season, 3-7 in the league.
The first set was all La Salle, as the Explorers hit .333 as a team with only two errors in the 10-point set win.
Set #2 was a bit tighter, featuring six tie scores and four lead changes. With the score at 16-15 in favor of Fordham, the Rams reeled off six of the next seven points to lead, 22-16. La Salle closed the gap back to two, but three Explorer errors would give Fordham the set win.
The Explorers regained the momentum in the third set, committing only one error, and hitting .324 as a group to take a 2-1 set lead.
Set four looked to be the final set, as La Salle led by five points, 22-17, with Fordham calling its final timeout. The Rams though would not go away, going on an 8-0 run to win the set, 25-22, as
Brianna O'Neil notched four kills over that stretch to force a fifth set.
The comeback effort by Fordham would fall short in the fifth set, however, as the Explorers bolted out to a 9-1 lead and did not look back.
For Fordham, O'Neil notched her fourth double-double of the year, tying a season-high with 18 kills to go with 12 digs, while
Abigail Konovodoff had her seventh double-double of the season with 37 assists, 15 digs, five kills, and three blocks.
Molly Oshinski just missed her first double-double with nine kills and 10 digs with
Grace Muller tallying a season-high 23 digs.
The Fordham volleyball team will next be in action on Sunday, November 2
nd, when the Rams travel to Duquesne for a 1:00 PM match.
