St. Louis, Mo. – The Fordham volleyball team showed its resilient spirit on Friday night, rallying to force a fifth set after falling behind two sets in the early going, but ultimately fell at Saint Louis. With the loss, Fordham moves to 7-7 overall and 0-2 in Atlantic 10 play, while the Billikens improve to 7-8 and 1-1, respectively.
After falling behind two sets to none, the Rams rallied in the third to continue the match with a 30-28 win and again fought in the fourth to force a decisive fifth with a 26-24 fourth frame. Down, 12-8, in the final set, Fordham ripped off three straight points to get within one with two kills from
McKenna Lahr and one from
Aria De La Rosa, prompting Saint Louis' second and final timeout. Out of the break, the Billikens took advantage of three Ram errors to steal the match.
The defense recorded its sixth double-digit block performance of the season and third straight.
Elise Benjamin led the way with seven blocks to go with a season-high 11 kills on offensive, hitting .308 for the match. Five others had at least two.
Morgan Williams continued her climb up the program ranks with 34 more digs, her fifth 30-dig performance of the year. She's now up to 359 on the year at a clip of 6.09 per set.
Lahr led the way on offense with 12 kills, racking up 17 digs, two blocks, and two assists. De La Rosa notched 10 kills for a third straight match and a fourth time overall this year, hitting .375 on the night.
Bella Ureña added nine kills and seven digs, while
Olivia Fairchild chipped in eight kills and five digs.
Megan Brzozowski enjoyed her seventh double-double of the year with 26 assists and 15 digs, plus three aces, sharing the setting duties with
Makaela Tanaka adding 14 and seven, respectively.
Fordham and Dayton kick things off at 12 p.m. on Sunday.
