Volleyball's Season Ends in Atlantic 10 Championship Semifinals

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Dayton, Ohio – The unusual, shortened, and out-of-season campaign came to an end for the Fordham volleyball team on Friday afternoon against the regular season champions, Dayton, in the Atlantic 10 Championship semifinals, 15-25, 18-25, 20-25, the first time the program had reached that stage of the league's postseason in the A-10 era. The Rams finish the year with an even 5-5 record, 5-3 in conference play.
 
"What the score doesn't illustrate is that we went down swinging, playing hard for every point. I haven't seen that from our team all year. Usually there's a relationship between our efforts and the score, but against Dayton we kept with the competitive intensity and resolve." Head coach Ian Choi said, "I'm proud of every single human being in this program. We've finally turned the corner by making the A-10 tournament and this validation will only serve to drive the competitiveness in our gym. I'm excited for the future of this program. Fordham volleyball is here to say."
 
The Rams improved steadily in the match, culminating in a thrilling third set, but the Flyers were more efficient, hitting .263 overall to Fordham's mark of .139 despite having just two fewer errors in attack, though the hosts also racked up 10 aces with the Rams tallying none.
 
Dayton raced out to 6-2 leads in the first two periods before the Rams would climb back into striking distance, within three on multiple occasions midway through each, but the Flyers would finish with a flurry to take each frame. The two schools traded points for much of the third period, with the Rams more often than not holding a slim advantage. The Flyers began to pull away slightly with a 5-2 run to lead, 18-15, at the midway point, but Whitley Moody and Bella Ureña combined for five kills to get the Rams within one, 21-20, before Dayton finished with four straight points on kills by four different players.
 
Senior McKenna Lahr led the way with a team-high 11 kills in her final collegiate contest, hitting .233 and chipping in 11 digs and two block assists. Moody finished with seven kills, six digs, and three assists, while four others tallied either three or four kills. Megan Brzozowski recorded a 24-assist, 10-dig double-double, while libero Mallory Lipski posted 11 digs. Junior Chloe Pejouan made the start and led the Rams with four blocks.
 
Lahr finishes her Fordham career 10^th in total attacks, with 1,852, and eighth with 2.78 career digs per set. The Lindenhurst, Ill. will also finish just outside the all-time top-10s with 908 digs and 97 aces.
 
The Rams will finish the season with 2.86 blocks per set, a top-10 mark in the nation, led by Isabel Fichtel's 1.93 per set, what will be a new NCAA record in the 25-point era, since 2008. Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year Whitley Moody will finish her first college campaign with 132 kills at an even 4.0 per set with a team-high .249 hit percentage. Her 4.0 kills per set will be the second-most in a single season in program history. Mallory Lipski's 5.31 digs per set will also be the second-most all-time in a single year.