Volleyball at Lion Invitational This Weekend

Watch ($): vs. Hartford | vs. Providence | vs. Columbia
Live Stats: vs. Hartford | vs. Providence | vs. Columbia
 
Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham volleyball team (6-5) has a quick turnaround after Wednesday night's home sweep of Saint Peter's, as the Rams travel to Columbia (2-4) over the next two days for the Lion Invitational, with matches against the hosts, Hartford (3-7) and Providence (9-2).
 
All three matches can be seen live on the Ivy League Network, but there is a fee to watch. Fans can also follow along through the live stats links above.
 
Last Time Out
The Rams dominated the Peacocks on Wednesday evening inside the Rose Hill Gymnasium, needing just 75 minutes to defeat Saint Peter's, 25-12, 25-11, 25-19. It was a very balanced team effort, with a season-high .289 attack percentage team-wide, plus career-highs for Olivia's LaPorta and Fairchild with .600 and .381 marks, respectively. LaPorta also matched her career-best output of 11 kills. Sophomore Maddy Walsh continues to pad her lead atop the Atlantic 10 with 37 assists, now sitting on 434 for the season. Junior Clarissa Cartledge came off the bench for a career-high five aces, including four in the second set alone, coming on two pairs of back-to-back aces.
 
National/Conference Rankings
Fordham's 10 aces on Wednesday was the third time this season the team has reached double digits and increases their standing nationally. The Rams' 2.05 aces per set ranks eighth in the country and their 88 total aces ranks second among 329 schools. Elsewhere in the top-100, Fordham ranks 57^th in kills (519), 58^th in assists (484), 77^th in total attacks (1,394), 87^th in opponent hit percentage (.178), and 88^th in digs (575).
 
Individually, Olivia Fairchild, despite not joining in on the service ace parade, still sits third in the nation with 27 aces and seventh with a 0.63 mark per set. The freshman has jumped into the back-end of the top-10, in 10^th, with 210.5 points on the year, and has also moved up in kills, up to 14^th with 175. Walsh's 434 helpers ranks 13^th in the country and first in the A-10, while Morgan Williams' 172 digs is 63^rd-most.
 
Scouting the Opposition
The hosts, Columbia, are 2-4 thus far after two tournaments, one played at the University of San Francisco, where the Lions were swept in their three matches by the hosts, Indiana, and Campbell. Last weekend, they also held the Columbia Classic and went 2-1, with an opening loss to SIU Edwardsville in four sets, but a pair of victories over Manhattan and Bryan, in three and four sets, respectively, to put them on a small winning streak heading into this weekend. The Lions, along with Providence, will also face UMBC on Friday. Zoe Jacobs' 43 kills paces the squad but is followed closely by Kesi Neblett's 37 and Anja Malesevic's 36. Neblett hits at a .286 clip bu the team's best mark is Chichi Ikwuazom's .382 mark. Grace Campbell is the team's setter and she has compiled 155 assists through six games, while also leading with eight aces. Cassie Wes' 102 digs are tops, as are Ikwuazom's 15 blocks.
 
Fordham's Friday opponent, Hartford, enters the weekend with a 3-7 record. The Hawks began their season with five straight losses, between the Hampton Inn-vitational, a home contest against Fresno State, and the opening match of their Hartford Invitational, a three-set loss to Rhode Island, before bouncing back with five-set wins over Manhattan and Central Connecticut State to round out the tournament. At this past weekend's Dartmouth Invitational, the Hawks defeated Niagara in five sets to make it three in a row, before falling in straight sets to both Army and Dartmouth. Paulina Modestow is the team's main attacker, racking up 121 kills on the season and 139.5 points. Her .163 hit percentage is third in the squad, behind Katy Henchy's .220 and Jenna Bridges' .202 marks, with those two also chipping in 78 and 72 kills, respectively. Astrid Mangual has assisted on 321 kills this year, while Megan Scherer has a team-high 14 aces. Digs and blocks are spread throughout the team, with five players digging out at least 55 balls this season, and an impressive six players with at least 12 total blocks. Bridges' 35, including eight solo, are most on the team by a wide margin.
 
The Friars have enjoyed a very solid start to the season with a nine-game winning streak inside of two losses, the first match of their season and their most recent match. Providence lost to San Jose State in straight sets in California to start the year, but rebounding with straight-set wins over Manhattan and UMass-Lowell. The Friars won all four of their matches at the Lafayette/Lehigh Tournament, pulled out a five-set win at Brown, before defeating Holy Cross and La Salle in the first two contests of the 12^th annual Friar Classic. However, the run ended with a five-set loss to Quinnipiac in the championship match. Fordham mostly recently downed Quinnipiac in straight sets last Saturday afternoon. The team doesn't have a player over the century mark in kills, however they feature three with at least 90: Megan Onyundo with 97 and both Allison Impellizeri and Kayla Fitzgerald with 90 apiece.
 
Up Next
The Rams are down to their final nonconference contest next Tuesday evening at Stony Brook, with that match slated to begin at 7 p.m. Three days later, Fordham hosts La Salle in the first Atlantic 10 contest of the season.