FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The Fordham women's volleyball team dropped its season-opening match Friday in four sets to Presbyterian inside Alico Arena at the FGCU Hilton Garden Inn/Homewood Suites Classic. The Rams won the opening set, 25-16, before being edged over the final three sets, 25-23, 25-21, 29-27. With the loss, Fordham falls to 0-1 on the season, while the Blue Hose starts out 1-0.
Freshman
Breanna Jones recorded a double-double in her first career match as a Ram. She paced the squad with a team-high 14 kills to go along with 15 digs and an attack percentage of .343. Sophomore
Clarissa Cartledge provided a career-best 23 digs, while seniors
Brennan Delsing and
Brianna O'Neil added 11 and 10 digs, respectively. Senior
Abigail Konovodoff dished out 33 assists, tallied six kills and six digs and recorded a .294 attack percentage, and freshman
Olivia LaPorta chipped in a game-high eight blocks and six kills.
In the opening set, Fordham broke away from a 4-4 tie with back-to-back-to-back kills from O'Neil, Konovodoff and LaPorta to trigger a 7-0 spurt, forcing Presbyterian to call a timeout with the Rams taking an 11-4 lead. Fordham eventually took its largest lead at 21-10, before the Blue Hose sliced the advantage to six on two occasions. But the Rams scored the final three points of the set on a pair of errors and O'Neil's kill, which produced a 25-16 victory.
Fordham raced out to a 13-5 lead in the second set, as the Rams took advantage of multiple Blue Hose errors. Still leading 17-11, Fordham saw its lead slowly evaporate and trimmed to one at 17-16, before finally being caught at 18-18.
An attack error and an O'Neil kill moved the Rams back in front by two at 21-19, forcing a Presbyterian timeout. After the Blue Hose tied the set at 21-21, two errors produced another two-point lead for Fordham at 23-21. However, Presbyterian would score the final four points of the set to squeak out a 25-23 victory and tie the match at 1-1.
Set three saw five ties to start, before an O'Neil kill put the Rams in front 6-5. However, the Blue Hose scored the next five points to take the lead for good at 10-6. Fordham battled back and cut the lead to 16-15, as Jones and LaPorta combined on a block-assist. But it was as close at the Rams would get, with Presbyterian taking a 2-1 lead by winning 25-21.
The fourth set was a heartbreaker for Fordham, who trailed 6-1 right out of the gate and eventually 9-3. After trimming the margin to three, the Rams were outscored 6-1 and forced to call a timeout trailing 15-7.
Fordham responded with five straight points, with freshman
Natalie Martinez, Jones and LaPorta all recording kills. However, Presbyterian regained control and stretched its lead back out to seven at 21-14.
The Rams were not done and ran off seven straight points to deadlock the set at 21-21, as Jones started the run with a kill. The set would then be tied six more times, and Fordham had a chance to win the set after another Jones' kill gave the Rams a 26-25 lead. The Blue Hose, however, would score four of the final five points to claim the fourth set, 29-27, and the match, 4-1.
"Today we showed what we were capable at times," Head Coach
Gini Ullery said. "Our energy and communication is key, and when we did that we took our game to a different level. It was a well-fought match from both teams, unfortunately we put ourselves down in the fourth and our battle back just fell short. Tomorrow's a new opportunity to leave it all on the court. We will have some different but equally challenging moments, and I look forward to seeing what we can do."
Fordham returns to action Saturday with a pair of contests against Florida Gulf Coast at 12:30 p.m. and New Orleans at 3:30 p.m.
