Volleyball Sweeps George Washington for First A-10 Win

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Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham volleyball team notched its first Atlantic 10 victory of the season in emphatic fashion with a 25-19, 25-11, 25-22 sweep of George Washington on Friday evening in front of a loud crowd on hand for the team's league home opener. With the win, the Rams improve to 4-11 on the year and 1-3 in A-10 action.
 
"Great effort by the whole squad." Head coach Ian Choi said, "Special shout-out to Ane [Cartledge] who sparked a great point-scoring run for us. We hope to carry this momentum into our match with Mason on Sunday."
 
The Rams were clicking on offense, tallying just 10 errors on the night while hitting .350 overall, second-highest this season, plus a season-best nine aces. The defense, meanwhile, racked up eight blocks plus 48 digs.
 
Bella Ureña and Izzy Fichtel, with 14 and 12, respectively, combined for 26 kills, the former hitting .423 and the latter hitting .611. Whitley Moody and Joey Landeros each notched seven kills apiece with Aria De La Rosa rounding out the scoring with five. Megan Brzozowski finished with 34 assists, eight digs, and four blocks, one solo, with De La Rosa leading the way with five blocks. Mallory Lipski matched her career-high with four aces and added 17 digs and four assists.
 
Aneliesa Cartledge was on serve to see out the first set with the final three points and, down four in the third set, served during a 7-0 run to steal the third and final frame. Down 11-9 in the opening frame, a pair of attack errors by Salem Yohannes let the Rams tie the contest up and kills from Fichtel and Ureña with Ryan Naumann serving. A solo block from Megan Brzozowski and a Moody kill put the hosts up three but the Colonials rallied to retake a short-lived lead that lasted just three points. A De La Rosa kill and an attack error by Sarah Pintel swung the set in Fordham's favor for good. Cartledge notched two aces on the final three points with an unassisted Fichtel kill sandwiched between.
 
Fordham was dominant in the second, storming out to a 6-3 lead, forcing a GW timeout, and then going on a 10-1 run out of that break, mostly with Lipski serving; the junior at one point tallied three consecutive aces.  The nine-point deficit at 17-8 was the last time the lead was ever under double figures for the Rams.
 
George Washington came out with renewed purpose in the third set and led, 8-1, to start. Three Colonial errors and a Ureña kill got the Rams back within three and the hosts chipped away at the deficit, though they were one or two points behind until George Washington jumped out to a six-point lead with a 7-2, 21-15. Landeros kickstarted that lengthy run with a kill that switched over to Cartledge's serve. A Fichtel sandwich, with a third Cartledge ace inside, forced the Colonials to burn a timeout. Out of the break, Ureña smoked a kill, Landeros added another, and Fichtel had back-to-back unassisted kills on digs that sailed back over the net, prompting the visitors' final timeout down two, 23-21. Cartledge erred on her next serve but Landeros set up match point with her final kill and Brzozowski and Fichtel blocked a Pintel effort at the net to punctuate the victory.
 
The Rams next host George Mason on Sunday at 1 p.m. before heading on the road for two straight weekends.