Riverdale, N.Y. – The Fordham volleyball team rallied from two sets down to overtake hosting Manhattan in the annual Battle of the Bronx on Wednesday night. The Rams won, 21-25, 24-26, 25-13, 25-21, 15-7, in just their second five-set match of the year. With the win, Fordham improves to 7-3 on the year, while the Jaspers fall to 2-8.
"It took a couple of sets to acclimate but the team came together and rallied," Head coach
Ian Choi said, "Since the team is so close, it took some time to compartmentalize Kaitlin's injury and forge a productive mindset for the rest of the match. When we got back on track, the team was back to its competitive self. Good win against some unexpected adversity for us tonight."
Senior co-captain
Kaitlin Morley suffered an injury in the first set and missed the remainder of the match. Several players stepped up in her absence. Redshirt junior
Olivia Fairchild netted a match-high 15 kills at a .414 clip, junior
McKenna Lahr recorded a career-best 24 digs to go with 11 kills, four aces, and three blocks, and both sophomore
Bella Ureña and
Aria De La Rosa set new career-highs in kills with 12 and 10, respectively. Freshman setter
Megan Brzozowski's 35 assists were a new season-high, as well, as she enjoyed her third double-double of the year. Both Brzozowski and Fairchild tallied 11 digs on the night.
The Rams set a new season-high with 10 aces on the night. Beyond Lahr's four,
Claire O'Neil had three and
Morgan Williams had two, plus one by Fairchild. Williams, fresh off setting the single-match record for digs, had 20 digs against the Jaspers, her fifth straight match with at least that number. The squad also hit a collective .252, their fourth-highest mark of the year to-date.
Fordham continues its current swing of three road matches over three days with a trip to Columbia on Thursday night, which is set to begin at 7 p.m.
