New York, N.Y. – The Fordham volleyball team saw its three-match win streak snapped by Columbia on Friday night in straight sets. The Lions dispatched the Rams, 25-19, 25-21, 25-12. With the loss, Fordham falls to 5-6 on the year, while Columbia improves to 5-3 overall.
"There were some silver linings defensively with this match," Head coach
Ian Choi said, "The fourth and last weekend of non-conference play is always a measure of endurance for us. It's the only week we play four matches. But it's not atypical in the NCAA landscape. Columbia's block was solid and a great learning experience for our offense. And it's certainly going to help prepare us for conference play."
Following two new season-highs for hit offensive efficiency and back-to-back season-lows of nine errors during two sweeps, the Rams hit a season-low .033 and committed 24 errors, the latter a season-high in three set matches and fifth-highest in any match. Junior libero
Morgan Williams did tie the program's three-set record for a second consecutive year with 22 digs. She previously had reached that number in a win over Cleveland State last September 1
st.
The Rams struggled to contain Columbia middle Chichi Ikwuazom, who finished with a match-high 13 kills and four blocks. The Lions kept a very tight rotation and five players ended up with between six and 13 kills and five tallied at least eight digs, as well.
Fordham was led on offense by
McKenna Lahr, who notched eight kills at a .162 clip, just south of
Natalie Martinez's team-high .182 rate, finishing with three kills of her own. Lahr added seven digs, three blocks, and an assist.
Joey Landeros chipped in seven kills, two blocks, and a dig, and
Kaitlin Morley added five kills and six digs. Three attackers and five total Rams finished with more errors than kills.
Setting up the offense was
Makaela Tanaka and
Sophia Plett, who assisted on 12 and 10 points, respectively. The former added six digs, the latter three. The defense did combine for 6.5 total blocks, with Lahr and
Claire O'Neil sharing the team-lead of three blocks apiece. Landeros and
Olivia LaPorta chipped in two.
Fordham returns home to see out the remainder of the Big Apple Battle in the Rose Hill Gym, hosting St. Francis Brooklyn at 10 a.m. and Dartmouth at 4 p.m. tomorrow. Only the first match will be streamed live on ESPN+ but both matches will have live stats.
