Volleyball Falls in Five Sets at Stony Brook

Box Score

Stony Brook, N.Y. – The Fordham volleyball team dropped a tight five-set match on the road at Stony Brook Tuesday night to round out its out of conference portion of the schedule. The Rams finish the first half of their campaign with a 7-8 record, their best mark since 2013, head coach Gini Ullery's first in the Bronx, while the Seawolves improve to 4-10 overall.
 
"We played a solid match tonight," Ullery said, "The team played strong defensively throughout and were quick to make adjustments."
 
Fordham has struggled on the road thus far, now winless in four trips to opposing schools, but did not struggle tonight, displaying one of their best attacking performances of the season, hitting at a .265 clip as a team, plus blocking a total of six shots, compared to Stony Brook's two. Fordham also committed just 17 attack errors, the fourth-lowest total on the season, with the other three numbers coming in three and four set matches.
 
The Rams took a hard-fought first set, 25-23, on the strength of 12 kills at a .360 clip. A serviceerror and a Molly Oshinski solo block gave the visitors a two-point lead but soon enough the two sides were evened up and battling from that point on. Fordham took a late 21-20 lead on another service error and the lead wouldn't be given up again. The Seawolves controlled the second set from the start, beginning with two kills from Maria Poole, and eventually won, 25-22. The hosts did this despite Fordham's match-high 16 kills, but Stony Brook's 15 and .370 attack percentage won out. Olivia Fairchild led the way with six kills, giving her 10 through the first two sets, along with Ostach and Morley combined nine kills.
 
Both teams came out of the long break looking to gain the upper hand and, despite the Rams' 14 kills and just two attack errors, compared to Stony Brook's .182 team hit percentage, the hosts would take the 2-1 lead in the match on a 26-24 set. The Seawolves broke free of a stalemate to lead, 19-14, late in the frame but Fordham battled back through kills by Oshinski and Ostach followed by a Fairchild ace to cut the lead to two. Stony Brook jumped back out up five before Fordham ripped off five straight points. Two Morley kills sandwiched a Morgan Williams ace before a pair of attack errors tied things up at 23 apiece. Stony Brook reached match point but Fairchild tied things up with a blast before the Seawolves took the set with a pair of points.
 
Fordham showed its resilience in the fourth set, though, and barreled through Stony Brook towards a 25-19 decision. The Rams led by as much as 11 late in the stanza, 19-11, but a series of kills and a couple aces brought Stony Brook back within reach. The Seawolves, struggling throughout the set to a .032 attack percentage, committed a trio of errors to gift the Rams a six-point lead, and the visitors finished things off behind kills from a trio of newcomers, Maddy Walsh, Morley, and Elise Benjamin.
 
It was Fordham's turn to struggle offensively in the final frame, notching four kills and four errors on 17 attempts, as Stony Brook held on for a 15-11 margin and the match.
 
Fairchild led all players with 18 kills (.261) and matched a career-high five aces on the night to boost her season total to 37 through 15 matches. Morley finished one short of her career-best mark with 13 on .303 hitting, while Ostach killed a season-high nine efforts, plus solo blocking two shots and three total,  as Benjamin and Oshinski ended with seven apiece. Walsh tallied 47 assists, while Williams dug out 12 balls on the night.  
 
Fordham now turns its attention towards the Atlantic 10 schedule, starting this weekend with two matches in the Bronx. The Rams will first host La Salle on Friday evening at 7 p.m. inside the Rose Hill Gymnasium. On Sunday, Duquesne arrives for a 1 p.m. meeting.