Fairfax, Va. – The Fordham volleyball team produced yet another thrilling comeback, this time falling down two sets at George Mason, but rallying for a five-set victory, the team's third straight win. With the result, Fordham improves to 12-14 overall and 5-9 in Atlantic 10 action, while the Patriots fall to 4-22 and 0-14, respectively.
"Mason had a solid defensive gameplan against us and a lapse in our serve and pass made it tough to get going offensively," Head coach
Ian Choi said, "Our discipline, patience, and resilience enabled us to adhere to our gameplan and ultimately chip away at Mason for the win."
After coming close but falling by a combined five points in the opening frames, the Rams dominated the third set, 25-14, and outscored the hosts by 21 over the final three frames. Fordham's 12 wins this year are tied for the program's most since 2010 and its five league victories are the most since then, as well. Fordham's five wins are tied with Davidson, who play tomorrow, but the Wildcats hold the tiebreaker over the Rams and have secured the last spot in the Atlantic 10 tournament.
The opening set was a series of runs; the two schools combined for five runs of four or more points and Fordham also had two of three straight points. It was the final run of the set, though, that pushed the hosts ahead. Trailing, 20-15, the Patriots ripped off a 10-2 run to gain the first advantage. Mason started the second with four straight points and led, 13-7, after a 6-0 run. The Rams fought back to tie the set up at 16-16 and kept pace with the Patriots, even taking a lead, 21-20, through a Bailey Williams error, but George Mason closed with a 5-2 run.
Fordham never trailed in the third set, gaining separation with a 4-0 run to lead by five, 12-7. After a ShaLi Niu kill made it 16-11 in favor of the visitors, Fordham closed the frame out with a 9-3 run, capped by four unanswered points, including two
McKenna Lahr aces. The Rams kept up their momentum in the fourth, putting together a 11-2 run after falling behind 3-0 in the early going. Mason didn't get within four until the latter stages, making things interesting with three straight points facing set point, but a block by
Aria De La Rosa and
Olivia Fairchild stopped the skid.
The decisive fifth was back-and-forth until the Rams turned on the jets late. George Mason took its last lead, 8-7, and tied the set up at 9-9, but Fordham rattled off six unanswered points to win the match. De La Rosa notched a pair of kills to start the run, Lahr added a kill,
Mallory Lipski found space for an ace, and the set ended through a De La Rosa-Lahr block and a Lahr kill.
Fordham tallied a season-high 117 digs, one of the highest totals in program history, and hit .199 with 56 kills. The Rams defense tallied 12.0 total blocks, eight of them of the solo variety.
Lahr led the way offensively with 12 kills, adding 22 digs and three aces, just ahead of De La Rosa and
Kaitlin Morley, who had 11 kills apiece.
Elise Benjamin and Fairchild each chipped in eight kills, with
Joey Landeros adding six. Benjamin's five blocks led the way, with her enjoying a career-high four solo. Four Rams had one solo block on the night.
Makaela Tanaka and
Megan Brzozowski combined for 42 assists, the former having 22, and each double-doubled, with 12 and 18 digs, respectively.
Morgan Williams recorded her ninth 30-dig effort of the year, racking up 32 on the night to go with seven assists.
Lahr finishes her junior season with a team-high 291 kills across all but one set, averaging 2.77 per set to go with a team-high 31 aces and the second-most digs, 328. Lahr's 1,038 attacks on the season are 10
th-most in a single season, while her 2.68 digs per set average is eighth all-time. Williams, of course, finishes with the team lead in digs and one the country's top totals – 641 and 6.05 per set. Williams played all 106 sets on the season, the only Ram to do so, while De La Rosa, Fairchild, and Lahr played in all but one, and Brzozowski in all but two. Benjamin's 1.07 blocks-per-set average ranks joint-seventh all-time in a single campaign, while De La Rosa's 78 block assists fell just shy of the top-10.
Williams finishes her career with the most career digs overall, 1,826, and the most per set, 4.44, nearly one full dig per set more than Stephanie frost's previous record of 3.46. Morley finishes 12th with 953 kills and 10th with a 2.76 kills per set average. Benjamin finishes her career with the third-highest per-set rate for blocks, at 0.99, is fifth all-time with 224 block assists, and ninth with 255 total blocks. Fairchild cements her spot as the program's per-set kills leader, at 3.39, and is 10th with both 1,063 career kils and a .235 hit percentage. She is also third with 0.40 aces per set and seventh with 127 career aces.
"The win was just the icing on the cake. This senior class was something special and they've imprinted an inclusive and robust foundation for the program to set up continued success for each successive class. It was a privilege to coach them and they'll have an ally for life."
