ROCHESTER, N.Y. (Sept. 26, 2021) – Powered by six Mavericks recording five or more kills, the Mercy College volleyball team opened ECC play with a 3-1 (25-18, 19-25, 25-23, 25-15) win at Roberts Wesleyan College on Sunday afternoon.

The Mavericks (5-6, 1-0 ECC) have won three matches in a row and win their ECC opener for the first time since 2005. The ECC win is the first for first-year Head Coach Gary Preston Jr. The Redhawks (0-12, 0-2 ECC) remain winless on the year.

Junior Larissa Schneid (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Iowa Western CC) led the way with a team-high 14 kills and four aces. Senior Selma Vulic (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) had a season-high nine kills with eight digs and senior Nilka Rivera Maldonado (Bayamon, P.R./Concordia College) had nine kills. Junior Stéphanie Lankhorst (Apeldoorn, Netherlands/Koninklijke Scholengemeenschap Apeldoorn) had nine kills and junior Yarianne Gonzalez (Manati, P.R./Monroe College) had five kills, 38 assists and 13 digs. Senior Sophia Flanders (Hamden, Conn./Hamden) had 14 digs and senior Tynesha Adams (Prattville, Ala./Bethune Cookman University) had seven kills.

Roberts Wesleyan was led by Sydney Yanak who had a match-high 16 kills.

Mercy opened the first set with a 6-1 lead after a Schneid kill and increased the lead to 21-12 following another Schneid kill. Roberts Wesleyan cut the Mercy lead to 24-18, but an Adams kill gave the Mavericks a 25-18 set one win.

The second set was tied at 17-17 after a Schneid kill. However, the Redhawks went on a 6-0 run to take a 23-17 lead and held on for the 25-19 win to tie the match at 1-1.

The hosts took an 18-11 lead in set three and looked to be on the verge of taking a 2-1 lead. However, the Mavericks had other plans and ensued with seven straight points, capped off by a Lankhorst kill, to tie the set at 18-18. Roberts Wesleyan scored the next two points to take the lead back at 20-18. The Redhawks later held a 21-19 lead before Mercy rattled off four straight points to take a 23-21 lead after back-to-back Lankhorst aces. The hosts tied the set back up at 23-23 before Adams and Schneid ended the set with kills to give Mercy a 25-23 set three win.

The Mavericks jumped out to a 10-4 lead in set four following a Gonzalez kill, leading to a Redhawk timeout. Following the timeout, Roberts Wesleyan cut the Mercy lead to two, 13-11. However, the Mavericks rallied with a 9-1 run to take a 22-12 lead and cruised to the 25-15 set four win to secure the match in four sets.

Mercy had 53 kills, 40 assists, 52 digs, five blocks, 11 aces and hit .246. Roberts Wesleyan had 40 kills, 30 assists, 39 digs, six blocks, 10 aces and hit .159.

Head Coach Gary Preston Jr. and the Mavericks resume action on Tuesday, September 28th when they host Stonehill at 7 p.m.