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Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham volleyball team made it two wins in a row in Atlantic 10 action with a resounding four-set win over Duquesne on Friday night, 25-21, 18-25, 25-17, 25-18. With the win, the Rams improve to 9-12 overall and 2-7 in league play, while the Dukes fall to 9-14 and 3-7, respectively. During the match, senior libero
Morgan Williams set a new single-season record with 505 digs.
"The team did an amazing job adhering to the gameplan despite some tough resistance," Head coach
Ian Choi said, "Beating Duquesne for the first time in 22 matches is a testament to the culture, work ethic, and attitude that the team is embracing."
Aside from a second set in which the Dukes hit .350 with just two errors in attack, the Rams largely controlled the match, matching their second-lowest errors on offense, with 15. There were eight ties in the first frame but just one lead change; Fordham took a 7-6 lead and never trailed again. Starting with that point, each team rattled off five unanswered points. The Rams gained some separation following two kills by
McKenna Lahr and one by
Elise Benjamin, 18-14, never letting their advantage dip below two. Coach Choi called a timeout with the Dukes rallying, 22-20, and the hosts responded with a 3-1 run to close out the frame, capped by a block by
Aria De La Rosa and
Olivia Fairchild.
Duquesne stormed back to even the match up in the second. The Rams jumped out to an early 5-0 lead but the visitors responded with an 8-1 run and pulled away from that point on. Fordham used a big 13-3 run midway through the third to coast to a 2-1 advantage overall. Fairchild came up with a kill to make it 6-5 and the Rams rattled off 10 straight points on
Makaela Tanaka's serve, including two aces from the sophomore. Their lead wouldn't dip below five.
Fordham finished strong, never trailing once in the fourth. The offense hit a match-high .283 with just two errors and 15 kills. The Rams matched their season-high in four-setters with 59 kills and hit above .200 for the first time since mid-September, hitting .244 as a group, seventh-highest on the year.
Lahr led the way with 17 kills, hitting .313, with Fairchild, with 12, and
Joey Landeros, with a season-high 11, behind her, both hitting a team-high .370. De La Rosa and Benjamin combined for 14 in the middle. Both
Megan Brzozowski and Tanaka assisted on 22 points, the latter netting a career-best three aces. De La Rosa notched six blocks to lead the defense, while Williams racked up 37 digs, fourth-most in a single match and five shy of her own record set at Dartmouth. Freshman
Mallory Lipski added a season-high 14 digs, with Lahr chipping in eight and both setters adding seven.
Williams finished the match with 505 digs on the year, a top-10 figure in the country, and upped her per-set average above six, 6.08, which is top-five in the nation and will easily be a new single-season record, as well.
"I feel like this is the 10
th time I've addressed one of Mo's records. Everything's already been said about her. This is no surprise."
The Rams will look to make it three wins in a row when they host La Salle in an important Sunday afternoon meeting at 1 p.m.
