Volleyball Hosts Manhattan on Wednesday Night in 38th Battle of the Bronx

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Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham volleyball team returns to Rose Hill with a two-match winning streak to host Manhattan (0-10) in the 38^th Battle of the Bronx this Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
 
The match will be shown live on ESPN+ and fans can also follow along via live stats at the links above.
 
Last Time Out
The Rams were in Las Vegas for the Rebel Challenge last weekend and went 2-1, rebounding from an opening 3-1 loss to UNLV with a five-set win over Eastern Kentucky and their first sweep of the year over Cal State Fullerton. Freshmen Joey Landeros and Makaela Tanaka were named to the All-Tournament team.
 
The Rams rebounded from a 25-18 opening set loss to the hosts with a 25-16 victory in set two, hitting .414 as a team, but ultimately lost in four. Junior Elise Benjamin made her season debut and her first touch was a solo block. Benjamin started the second match of the day, against Eastern Kentucky, and got her team on the right foot with the first kill of the match. The two schools traded sets until the Rams held on for a 15-12 fifth-set win. As has been the case, Fordham came out strong, hitting .438 with 17 kills in that opening frame but struggled in sets that EKU won. Tanaka's 54 assists were one fewer than Sara Konkel's true freshman mark of 55 in 2010.
 
Fordham kept its momentum up and swept Cal State Fullerton, who had entered the weekend with a 6-1 record. The Rams did not commit an attack error in the first set, hitting, .433 with 13 kills, and tallied a season-low nine by the match's end. The team's .262 attack percentage was also a season-high.
 
Kaitlin Morley led the way offensively with 36 kills, followed closely by McKenna Lahr's 33. Landeros notched 28 and Claire O'Neil finished with 18. Tanaka assisted on 91 points at an average of 9.10 per set. Morgan Williams led the way defensively with 40 digs while Morley, Breanna Jones, and Lahr tallied 26, 19, and 18, respectively. Both Benjamin and O'Neil blocked 12 attacks with Morley adding nine and Tanaka seven.
 
Series History
Fordham leads the all-time series 25-10-2 since 1980. The two schools have played each other nearly every year since 1990. The Rams own wins in 11 of the past 12 contests dating back to 2004, outside of a Manhattan sweep on neutral ground in 2011, with the Jaspers taking just three sets in those 11 wins. Fordham swept Manhattan each of the past two seasons, last year's coming in Riverdale. Olivia Fairchild recorded an 11-kill, 10-dig double-double while Elise Benjamin tallied nine kills and three blocks. 

Preseason Poll
Fordham has been selected to repeat its finishes of the past two years and end this upcoming season seventh it was announced in the Atlantic 10's preseason poll voted on by the league's head coaches. The Rams garnered 36 votes. Read more about it.
 
Up Next
The Rams take part in this weekend's Battle of the Big Apple, co-hosted by Fordham and Columbia. They will travel to Manhattan to take on the Lions on Friday night at 6 p.m. before hosting St. Francis Brooklyn and Dartmouth on Saturday at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., respectively.  All three matches will be on ESPN+.