Volleyball Wraps Up Regular Season By Hosting George Washington, George Mason

Watch (George Washington) | Watch (George Mason) | Live Stats | @FordhamVB on Twitter
 
Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham volleyball team (9-16, 2-10 A-10) has just two more matches remaining in the 2018 season and both are at home in the Bronx. The Rams welcome George Washington (9-15, 3-9 A-10) and George Mason (10-12, 8-4 A-10) to the Rose Hill Gym this Friday and Saturday for back-to-back 3 p.m. Atlantic 10 contests.  
 
Both matches will be streamed live on ESPN+ via the links above.
 
Last Time Out
The Rams' losing skid hit seven matches with a sweep at the hands of Rhode Island last Saturday evening. The Fordham offense struggled on the day, hitting .083 with a ratio of 36 kills to 27 errors, the latter being a new season-high for the squad in a three-set match and the most since 36 across five sets against Eastern Kentucky on September 7^th. Saturday was also just the third time the team has hit under .100 all season. Rhode Island, meanwhile, had no player with more than seven kills but committed just eight errors and hit .245. Junior Kaitlin Morley led the way offensively with a match-high 15 kills, hitting a team-best .265, with three blocks, two digs, and an ace. Bella Ureña came off the bench to chip in seven kills, while five others were able to contribute at least one. Makaela Tanaka notched 21 assists to go with five digs and three kills. Morgan Williams tallied 20 digs, falling just two digs shy of the three-set program record which she has tied on two occasions already.
 
Senior Day
Saturday's match will be the final contest for four Rams: Olivia LaPorta, Breanna Jones, Natalie Martinez, and Maddy Walsh. LaPorta has been a consistent part of the rotation for the past four years in the front line and ranks within the top-10 in career block assists and blockers per set. She is eighth all-time with 208 block assists and ninth with 0.78 blocks per frame. Walsh arrived as a sophomore transfer from St. Mary's in her native Texas and slid into the starting setter role early in her Fordham career. Walsh has since moved up to eighth in program history with 1,686 career assists and sixth with an average of 8.35 per set. Martinez has appeared in 85 matches for the Rams and tallied 441 kills, 115 blocks, and 61 aces during her four years in the Bronx. Jones, a two-time team captain and team MVP as a freshman, has battled injuries during her time in maroon and white, but has still appeared in 73 matches and totaled 422 kills and 311 digs.


Series Histories
George Washington – The Colonials lead the all-time series, 32-10, since 1995 when the Rams joined the Atlantic 10. Aside from a home sweep in 1997, George Washington won the first 17 matches in the series, up through 2003, before Fordham swept home and away the following year. Since, it's been mostly Colonials but the Rams currently ride a four-match winning streak into Friday's contest after winning on the road in four sets earlier this year. Kaitlin Morley went off for 22 kills in that match while sophomores Alena Cashdan and Sophia Plett set new personal marks with 19 digs and both 49 assists and 15 digs, respectively.
 
George Mason – The Patriots broke a 4-4 deadlock in the all-time series with a four-set win back on October 5^th. Fordham is just 1-4 on the road against George Mason but hold a 3-1 advantage in the Bronx. Morley tallied a career-high 20 digs to go with 10 kills the last time these two teams met.
 
Conference & National Ranks
Individual

• Kaitilin Morley 332 kills (A10: 5^th, NCAA: 111^th)
• Kaitlin Morley 3.39 kills per set (A10: 5^th, NCAA: 148^th)
• Kaitlin Morley 365.0 points (A10: 5^th, NCAA: 140^th)
• McKenna Lahr 253 kills (A10: 7^th)
• McKenna Lahr 2.72 kills per set (A10: T-10^th)
• Morgan Williams 404 digs (A10: 3^rd, NCAA: 137^th)
• Morgan Williams 4.30 digs per set (A10: 7^th, NCAA: 146^th)
• Elise Benjamin 1.44 blocks per set (A10: 2^nd)
• Makaela Tanaka 7.23 assists per set (A10: 7^th)
• Sophia Plett 7.14 assists per set (A10: 8^th)

 
Team

• 1,156 kills (A10: 3^rd, NCAA: 196^th)
• 1,082 assists (A10: 3^rd, NCAA: 202^nd)
• 1,490 digs (A10: 2^nd, NCAA: 128^th)
• 103 aces (A10: 9^th NCAA: 264^th)
• 213.5 total blocks (A10: 3^rd, NCAA: 106^th)
• 2.18 blocks per set (A10: 3^rd, NCAA: 112^th)

 
Williams Climbing the All-Time Ranks
Junior libero Morgan Williams has missed just four sets in her entire Fordham career and, as a result, is already up to fifth all-time in program history with 1,180 career digs. Her career rate of 3.89 digs per set is the current benchmark for the program, besting Stephanie Frost's ('07) mark by .43. After coming close a year ago but settling for second, Williams' 4.30 digs per set average this year would best Jenn Shea's long-standing record of 4.10, set back in 1994. The Los Angeles native eclipsed the 400-dig mark at Rhode Island last week, just the eighth time that's happened in program history. She has 404 this year and fell just short a year ago with 398. Williams has a chance this season to move past Kailee May's 1,214 career digs into fourth all-time, currently just 34 digs short.
 
Back-to-Back Defensive Player of the Week Winners
Two Fordham juniors earned their first career Defensive Player of the Week honors and the program's first since 2012. It's also just the third time two different Rams won the accolade during the same season. Morgan Williams did so first followed by Elise Benjamin's torrid stretch at the net a week later. Read more about Elise's and Morgan's weeks at the respective links.
 
Up Next
The Rams have been eliminated from postseason play. The 2018 campaign will come to an end following Saturday's match.