NEW YORK – It was a day of records in upper Manhattan Saturday afternoon as Fordham University Volleyball took a four-set win over Columbia.
A dominating start would see Fordham score the first 15 points of the contest before Columbia got on the board, as the Rams hit nearly .700 without an error to take a 25-4 win in set one. A much closer second set would see Columbia pull away to tie the match at a set apiece, before the Rams took back control in the third, Fordham would take a 25-15 win in set three, and despite stronger play by the home side in the fourth, would hold off a late rally to take the win in four sets.
In a dominant effort on the attack, Whitley Moody would drill a career-high 24 kills while hitting .447 for the day, tied for the second most kills ever by a Fordham player in a four-set match. Moody would tally her first 12 kills without committing a single error on the attack, and tally her 24 kills on 47 attempts, with just three total hitting errors all afternoon.
Moody would also lead the Rams with 14 digs, tied with Ryan Naumann, while continuing the career performance, Tatum Holderied posted a career-best six solo blocks and finished with a pair of block assists as well, with four of those blocks coming in the first set alone. Whitney Woodrow would record 46 assists for the Rams, who dished out 52 as a team, and added a trio of aces for herself, tying her career-best mark.
A day after tallying ten straight points to open the match against Syracuse, Saturday would see the Rams light up the Lions, scoring 15 unanswered points to start the match, and would allow . The Maroon and White would slam 13 kills without a single error in the frame, hitting .684 out of the gates.
Holderied would be a dominant force at the tape, tallying a career-high four solo blocks in just the opening set. Fordham steamrolled to a dominant 25-4 victory, the largest single set victory in over a decade, 11 years to the day since the Rams took set one, 25-6, in a straight set win over Norfolk State on Sept. 7, 2013.
The second set would see Columbia come out much stronger, trading point-for-point before taking a slim lead, which the Rams erased to draw level at 11-all. A long run by the Lions would see them break out to a big lead, but a resilient Fordham rally would see the visitors draw back to within two late and eventually pull level at 24, with the Lions holding on to draw the match at 1-1.
Fordham would pull back in front as set three got underway, with the Rams taking a 10-3 lead early on, and would extend as much as a nine-point advantage later in the frame. Trying to piece things back together late, Columbia would try to go back and forth with the Rams again, but it was too late as Fordham held on for the 25-15 win.
Another close one in set four, Fordham would go up by as much as five points at 11-6, but Columbia worked its way back into the frame, drawing level and eventually taking the lead. The Rams would remain strong down the stretch, tying things at 19, before pulling away for a 25-22 win to take the match in four sets and finish the Big Apple Tournament 2-1 in their three games.
The Maroon and White will head across the Hudson into the Garden State for a pair of games next weekend at FDU. The Rams will take on Lafayette on Friday, Sept. 13 at 2:00 p.m. before battling the host Knights the following afternoon at 5:00 p.m. in Teaneck, N.J.
