Volleyball Splits Pair Against Holy Family and Nyack
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 BOXSCORE – Mercy vs. Holy Family
BOXSCORE – Mercy vs. Nyack
NYACK, N.Y. (Sept. 24, 2011) – On Saturday evening, the Mercy College volleyball team crossed the Tappan Zee Bridge for a tri-match featuring Holy Family University and host Nyack College. Facing Holy Family, winners of five of their last six contests, in their first match of the day, the Mavericks took a while to get going and could not recover in time, falling in three sets. In the next and final match of the day, Mercy took the court against Nyack and pulled out a thrilling five-set victory to stay one game below .500 at 5-6. Holy Family won both matches to improve to 8-9 while Nyack ended the evening with two losses and a 3-8 record.
Mercy 0, Holy Family 3
The Mavericks got off to a slow start against the Tigers, hitting a meager -.042 against Holy Family's .292 and losing 25-13 in the first set but put up a better showing in the final two, dropping them 25-20 and 25-22.
Senior outside hitter Jillian Keeve (La Grange, Ill.) hit 11 kills with only two errors to lead the Tigers and got some help from towering 6'3" sophomore middle blocker Sarah Ambach (Springboro, Ohio)¸who notched eight kills. Sophomore setter Chelsea Keegan (Bucyrus, Ohio) led the match with 24 assists for Holy Family.
The Mavericks were led as usual by freshman outside hitter Brenna White (Gardnerville, Nev.), ranked 12th in the nation at the start of the week with 4.31 kills per set. White slammed 13 kills over the three-set match but made nine errors, leaving room to improve for the next match. Freshman setters McKenna Ronan (Chandler, Ariz.) and Michala Askew (Ringgold, Ga.) combined for 13 assists, with Ronan adding yet another selective kill on two attacks to improve her impressive pre-match .421 hitting percentage. Junior middle hitter Kassy Phillips (Marcellus, N.Y.) added 3.0 total blocks.
Mercy 3, Nyack 2
The Mavericks turned right around for the second match of their doubleheader against host Nyack and took the first two sets with ease, 25-17 and 25-15. The Warriors fought back and took the next two, 25-17 and 25-23, to send the match into a fifth set, but the Mavericks prevailed by two to finish the day 1-1.
White led the assault on the Warriors, hitting 22 kills and adding 16 digs, both match highs, for the double-double, even adding four assists and two service aces. Ronan notched her own double-double, making 12 digs and 19 assists, while Askew led the squad with three aces and added 15 assists of her own as the Mavericks totaled 47 in the match. The freshman setters also put up impressive hitting percentages, with Ronan hitting two kills on three attempts and Askew a perfect four kills on four attempts. Freshman libero Ericka Kane (Glendale, Ariz.) added 11 digs and five assists.
Freshman middle hitter Amy Dorvick (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) was the only Warrior to reach double digits in kills with 10, while junior setter Amelia Moore (Austin, Texas) assisted on 17 kills and sophomore setter Brianna Kane (Bethany, Conn.) made a match-high 22 with 10 digs for Nyack's only double-double. Junior libero Michelle Makela (Cocoa, Fla.) led the team with 13 digs
Head Coach Alan Clements and the Mavericks have a busy week ahead of them, with five matches to play between Tuesday and Sunday and little respite immediately after. They will begin the gauntlet on Tuesday night with their first conference matchup, against NYIT in the Mercy Gymnasium. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.
