Volleyball Drops Season Finale to Dowling
Box Score DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Nov. 8, 2011) – On Tuesday night the Mercy College volleyball team took the court for the final match of the 2011 season, hosting conference-leading Dowling College and honoring senior Crasheena Ward (Danbury, Conn.) for her four years with the Mavericks. Mercy held its own early on but eventually succumbed to Dowling's superior play, falling in three sets.
Mercy ends the season with a 10-25 overall record (4-10 in the ECC) while Dowling improves to 25-4 (13-1).
Mercy stayed with Dowling as the first set progressed, giving up no more than a three-point edge through the first half and pulling back within four at 20-16 before the Golden Lions smacked five of the final six points to take the set. The second played out similarly until Dowling showed its might late, using a nine-point run to storm out to a 21-11 lead and close it out, 25-13, for the two-set advantage. The third set was more of the same as Dowling went on a 13-3 run early to jump out to a 19-6 lead and held the edge to the end, taking the match on a 25-14 score line.
Dowling hit .329 for the match while Mercy was unable to come up with a single block and struggled with errors, posting a .000 hitting percentage at the end of the night.
Junior outside hitter Bethany Shepard (Lakewood, Colo.) led the Golden Lions with 11 kills as graduate student setter Maja Potpara (Pljevlja, Montenegro) made 28 assists and junior libero Morgan Mutranowski (Muskego, Wis.) recorded seven digs.
Freshman outside hitter Brenna White (Gardnerville, Nev.) led the Mavericks with 14 kills, bringing her season total to 652 and setting the Mercy freshman record while ranking second all-time in Mercy single-season history. Freshman setters McKenna Ronan (Chandler, Ariz.) and Michala Askew (Ringgold, Ga.) combined for 21 assists while classmate Zoe Clemons (Irvine, Calif.) added three on a mere 12 plays. Ronan also led the squad with six digs.
Depending largely on five freshmen and two sophomore with only one senior on the team, Head Coach Alan Clements coaxed four wins in ECC play out of his young squad, shocking the conference after being tabbed to finish last in the preseason poll. In the thick of the playoff race until last week, Mercy managed to finish in a tie for fifth, the program's best league standing since 2005.
