ROCHESTER, N.Y. (Oct. 5, 2019) – Powered by a career-high 19 kills from sophomore Loreto Nunez Casal (Pontevedra, Spain/Sagrado Corazon De Jesus), the Mercy College volleyball team earned a 3-1 victory over ECC foe Roberts Wesleyan College on Saturday afternoon.
The Mavericks (7-10, 1-2 ECC) pick up their first ECC win and are off to their best 17-match start since 2013 when they started 8-9, while the Redhawks (1-14, 1-2 ECC) fail to build off their win last night.
Nunez Casal had 19 kills and hit .531 with four blocks and senior Imani DeBose (Carson, Calif./The College of New Rochelle) had 15 kills. Junior Natalia Garcia (Vega Baja, P.R./Turabo University) had 44 assists and seven kills and junior Adriana Lopez-Soto (Gurabo, P.R./Notre Dame HS) had 19 digs. Sophomore Selma Vulic (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) had 13 digs and five kills and senior NeKendra Liddie (Gardena, Calif./The College of New Rochelle) had eight kills.
Roberts Wesleyan was led by Anastasia Smith who had a team-high 15 kills.
Mercy scored the first two points of the opening set and held a 9-6 lead after a Liddie kill. An Emily Rowlison kill made it 9-7 before the Mavericks went on a 6-1 run to build a 15-8 lead. The hosts answered back with an 8-1 run to tie the score up at 16-16, forcing a Mercy timeout. Following the timeout, the two teams traded points back-and-forth with the score being 19-19 later in the set. The Mavericks ended the set on a 6-2 run, capped off by a Vulic kill, which gave Mercy a 25-21 win in set one.
The Redhawks took a 15-9 lead in set two, leading to a Maverick timeout. Mercy later cut the deficit to three, 24-21, after a Nunez Casal kill but Roberts Wesleyan finished off the set following a Maverick service error to tie the match up at 1-1.
Roberts Wesleyan took a 10-8 lead in set three, but Mercy stormed back on a 9-1 run, finished off by a Jessica Berka (Hicksville, N.Y./St. Dominic) ace, which gave the Mavericks a 17-11 lead. Mercy led the rest of the way and earned a 25-17 win to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
The fourth set saw the teams tied at 12-12 before the Redhawks scored three straight points to take a 15-12 lead. Roberts Wesleyan later led 20-16 and held a 24-20 lead late, needing just a point to send the match into the fifth set. Mercy battled back with four straight points to tie the set up at 24-24. Roberts Wesleyan later took a 27-26 lead, but DeBose recorded two kills and Liddie added another to give the Mavericks the set, 29-27, and match.
Mercy hit .296 with 57 kills and 57 digs and Roberts Wesleyan hit .132 with 41 kills and 56 digs.
Head Coach Georgia Efthalitsides and the Mavericks resume action on Wednesday, October 9th when they play at Molloy at 7 p.m.
