DAVIDSON, N.C. – Venturing to the Tar Heel State for a pair of matches this weekend, Fordham University Volleyball heads to North Carolina to take on Davidson.
Weekend Plans
The Rams will take on the Wildcats in a pair of weekend afternoon contests, Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Both matches will be available to stream on ESPN+ with live stats available on the Davidson Athletics website.
Downing Davidson
Sitting just a game back of .500 on the year, Davidson enters the weekend at 11-12 on the year and 7-5 in league play. Despite falling to VCU in the midweek Tiuesday in straight sets, the Wildcats had won five straight games including a sweep of Duquesne last weekend at home, the first team to take multiple matches from Duquesen this season.
Hammer Time
Since breaking the program record for career kills in early October, Whitley Moody has been a dominant force on the attack, leading the team at 3.75 kills/set, and sitting just shy of 300 kills for the season. Audrey Brown sits second on the team with 183 kills at 2.51/set and tallied 13 kills last time out against Rhode Island in the midweek.
In all but four of her 21 games played in 2024, Moody has tallied double digit kills, highlighted by a new career high with 25 hammers while hitting .447 in a four set win over Duquesne in Pittsburgh on Oct. 18. Brown has notched 10 or more kills on eight occasions thus far, including a season-high 19 kills against Lafayette on Sept. 13.
Trouble at the Tape
Averaging over 2.0 blocks/set over the course of the 2024 campaign, the last seven matches have seen the Rams posted over 8.2 blocks per set as a team, including four matches with eight or more total blocks.
Sophia Kuyn paces the team with 60.0 total blocks including eight solo, leading a group of 10 Rams with 10 or more, including Lorenza Rosenkilde and Moody with 52.0 and 40.0 respectively.
Double Trouble
Moody has also tallied nine double-doubles this season, with Whitney Woodrow sitting one back of her with eight after notching three straight heading in October. Recording her first of the season against Lafayette, Ryan Naumann would tally 10 assists and 18 digs against the Leopards, and enters the weekend leading the team from the libero spot with 3.22 digs per set.
Tatum Holderied would post her first career double-double with a career-high 10 kills against FDU where she also had a pair of solo blocks and eight block assists for 10 total blocks on the night. Zoe Talabong would notch her first career double-double with 10 kills and 12 digs on the afternoon Oct. 19 at Duquesne.
Centennial Sweep
In the first game since the official announcement of the 2024-25 centennial season at the Rose Hill Gym, Fordham Volleyball claimed a straight set win over Rhode Island Tuesday in The Bronx. Behind 45 kills and nine service aces as a team Tuesday night, three Rams would lead the way on offense, with Whitley Moody leading the way with 13 kills, hitting .379, ahead of 12 kills from Audrey Brown, who hit an even .400 on the night.
Lorenza Rosenkilde would tally nine hammers, hitting 467 for the match, while eight different Rams recorded a kill, including Alexa Pyle with two on as many attempts, along with a solo block.Emma Stammeyer dished out a career high 21 assists, ahead of 17 from Whitney Woodrow who led the Rams with four service aces.
Recording two aces apiece would be Moody and Lola Fernandez, with Ryan Naumann adding one of her own along with six digs and three assists. Talabong would collect 11 digs to lead the team, with Moody leading the block with a solo and three assists.
Making History
Recording the Rams' 13th point of the opening set at Rhode Island in early October, and her fifth kill to that point in the match, Whitley Moody became the All-Time Program Kills Leader for Fordham Volleyball. Needing just five kills to break the mark of 1,443 set by Val Bosticco (1989-92), Moody would rattle off six kills in the first set alone, and would lead the attack hitting .308 for the match, drilling 16 kills and collecting nine digs along with a pair of service aces.
Moody, who has also tallied more attack attempts than any other Fordham player in history, is on pace to set the program record for kills per set average for a career over her now five year tenure donning Maroon and White.
Next Stop
Spending their second straight weekend on the road, Fordham Volleyball heads to the Windy City for a pair of matches next Friday and Saturday at Loyola Chicago.
