BRONX, N.Y. – It was another dominating performance for senior hitter Whitley Moody Sunday afternoon, as she collected her sixth double-double of the season to help Fordham University volleyball take down FDU 3-1. The victory sees the Rams sweep their two games in the Rose Hill Classic to wrap the non-conference portion of the schedule with nine wins in the first ten games of the campaign.
Tying its third best mark of the season, the Fordham offense rattled off 59 kills against the Knights, led by 16 from Moody, in addition to 14 from Audrey Brown and 12 from Zoe Talabong, while hitting .253 for the match. All together the Rams had seven players tally multiple hammers, with the offense running mostly through Whitney Woodrow who dished out 40 assists, while Mackenzie Colvin also saw time at the setter spot with seven.
On the opposite side of the ball, Mallory Lipski dominated at the libero spot to the tune of 29 digs for the day, followed closely by Moody who collected 18 digs. Fordham's defense also held the Knights to .154 atttacking and six Rams would add themselves to the scoresheet on the block as well, with Nailah Jenkins pacing the efforts with five block assists, and Talabong who had a solo block and three assists.
The Rams opened the match with a season-best 19 kills in the first set, and spread the wealth throughout with six players recording two or more hammers in the frame. FDU gained the upper hand in the set early on, taking as much as a three point lead, before a 9-3 run by the Rams saw the home team take the lead and go on to win the match 25-18. Fordham would go up to start the second frame, but a strong rally in the mid portions of the set saw the Knight take a close one to level the match at one apiece.
In the third set, the visitors would tie the score on three occasions but were unable to take the lead, as the Rams dominated from the jump with seven of the first eight points, but had to fight off a comeback effort by the Knights to take the set by the same line as the first and go up 2-1 in the match.
Another emphatic start to a set, Fordham took a 10-3 lead early in the fourth to maintain control of the game, and within that run, FDU managed to tie just once, but the Rams never looked back en route to a 25-16 win the frame and a win in the match 3-1.
With conference play now officially in the books in 2023, the attention for Fordham now turns to the Atlantic-10 calendar which opens this Friday at 6:00 p.m. from the Rose Hill Gym against Duquesne.
