St. Louis, Mo. – The Fordham volleyball team wrapped up its two weekend, four-match Atlantic 10 road swing with a tough five-set loss at Saint Louis on Sunday afternoon. With the loss, the Rams fall to 9-11 overall on the year and 2-5 in league action, while the Billikens improve to 4-16 and 3-5, respectively.
"Competitive match for us," Head coach
Ian Choi said, "We knew the adjustments we needed to make during the match but it was about executing them sooner. We're expecting every conference match from here on to have razor-thin margins so for us it's the ability to be present and mindful during pressure situations so that we can execute at a high level."
Fordham got off to a great start, capping an exciting back-and-forth opening set by fighting off two set points and ultimately pulling out a 28-26 win. The Billikens bounced back with a commander 25-14 second set and doubled up by outlasting the visitors, 25-20, in the third. The Rams fought back to force a fifth frame, leading for much of the fourth set and withstand a late Billiken charge to win, 25-22, but fell, 15-9, in the final set, totaling just three kills with four errors.
Fordham was led by junior
Kaitlin Morley, who tallied team-highs of 14 kills and 16 digs for her 12
th double-double of the season and seventh in her last eight matches. Freshman
Joey Landeros, with 11,
McKenna Lahr, with 10, joined Morley with double figure kills, while
Olivia LaPorta chipped in eight. Lahr and
Morgan Williams each notched 15 digs.
Sophia Plett ran the offense with 37 assists and added eight digs, as well.
Elise Benjamin enjoyed her seventh match with at least six blocks, finishing with seven, to lead a defense that totaled 12.0 blocks. Landeros and LaPorta each tallied five blocks.
The Rams return to the Bronx for their first home matches of October, hosting Davidson on Friday at noon in the team's annual Field Trip Day and Dig Pink match and VCU on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
