Volleyball Falls to Saint Louis in Four at Home

Box Score | Support Fordham Dig Pink
 
Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham volleyball team made things interesting with a big second-set rally but ultimately fell to last year's A-10 Tournament runners-up Saint Louis in four frames on Friday night during the team's annual Dig Pink event. With the loss, the Rams fall to 10-10 (3-2 A-10), while the Bilikens improve to 8-11 (3-1 A-10) on the season.
 
Fordham showed some serious resilience and determination in the first two sets, rallying to create a nervy finish, but would walk away with a split, a 25-23 loss in the first set and a 26-24 win in the second that included five unanswered points while facing set point. Both teams garnered their fair share of errors in the match but it was Fordham, who struggled the most in the third set, falling 25-7 for its worst margin of the season, before bowing out with a 25-19 decision in the decisive fourth set.
 
The Rams faced a six-point deficit, 23-17, in the first set before going on a 6-1 run thanks to a pair of Olivia Fairchild kills, a trio of Biliken errors, and an emphatic black from Kristen Ostach and Molly Oshinski. However, Saint Louis generated a kill by Josie Gandall on Fordham's serve to take a set they had controlled until the finish. The Rams continued to battle, trailing for nearly the entire second set but keeping the Bilikens close. With Saint Louis at set point, up 24-21, the Rams rallied in a big way. Fairchild and Kaitlin Morley each sent a thunderous spike into Biliken territory to cut the lead to one and force a Saint Louis timeout as the crowd grew louder. Out of the break, the freshman trio of Fairchild, Morley, and Elise Benjamin blocked an attack from Saint Louis standout Danielle Rygelski knotted things up at 24 apiece. The Fordham freshmen continued their stellar play to give the Rams the set, first with a Morley kill and finally a Benjamin kill sandwiched around another visitor timeout to knot the match up at one-all.

After the long break, Saint Louis came out strong in the third set, taking a 6-1 lead, and then sprinting away on Rygelski's serve with nine straight points to 16-5. The Bilikens would finish on a 9-2 run. Fordham struggled as a team, hitting by far a season-worst -.269 in that frame alone, with only Fairchild's four kills on the board. Things were again more even in the fourth set but Saint Louis led from 8-7 onward, although the Rams wouldn't allow the lead to grow more than three until the last few points.
 
Fairchild tallied a team-high 20 kills on .326 hitting with nine digs, two block assists and an ace. Morley matched her career-high with 14 kills on .326 hitting, her second-best mark of the season since the season opening win against Lehigh. No other Ram had more than two kills, though. Maddy Walsh added 32 more assists to her season total, while, defensively, the Rams totaled 9.5 blocks. Ostach stood out with a career-high matching six blocks, including one solo stuff.
 
Fordham is back in action tomorrow afternoon against two-time defending league champion Dayton inside the Rose Hill Gym. The match will begin at 5 p.m.