Women’s Volleyball Goes 0-2 in Non-Conference Tri-Match

Teaneck, NJ| The St. Joseph's College (L.I.) women's volleyball team lost both games of a non-conference tri-match on Friday evening played on the campus of FDU-Florham. After falling to the hosts 3-1 in the first match, the Golden Eagles were swept in three sets by St. Lawrence University. With the losses, St. Joseph's College falls to 2-3 on the year, while FDU improves to 4-2 and St. Lawrence to 2-4.

After dropping the first set 25-13 to FDU, the Golden Eagles pulled out to an early 5-2 lead in the second. FDU would pull ahead moments later by the score of 10-9 before scoring eight of the next nine points to build a 18-9 lead. With the score at 21-11 for the hosts, an AnneMarie Taggart kill sparked a 9-1 run for St. Joseph's, but the Devils would go on to hold off the guests to claim the 25-21 set victory.

St. Joseph's again came out strong in the third, building a 12-5 lead, but FDU's 11-3 run put them ahead 16-14. Later on, with the score tied 17-17, senior Heather Ferchland prompted a short 3-0 run via a kill to edge the Golden Eagles back in front with a 20-17 lead. Though FDU would strike back, St. Joseph's narrowly took the set 26-24 after an FDU attacking error ended the set.

With the chance to knot up the match at two, the Golden Eagles stumbled early, and fell behind 18-13 and 21-14. The Devils, appearing determined and leaving no doubt, would close out the set 25-15.

Despite the loss, Ferchland notched match-highs in kills (14) and hitting percentage (.444). Junior Courtney Wickline's 32 kills were tops amongst all players, and she also shared the match lead in digs with 14. Junior Kiersten Kissinger recorded 10 kills and three blocking assists.

The second match, against St. Lawrence, presented lesser fortunes for the Golden Eagles, who were forced to battle to keep their overall record over .500. The Saints came out strong, building 10-6 and 20-13 leads through the first set before claiming it 25-14.

The second started much like the first, with St. Lawrence pulling ahead 11-4 and 19-8, but the Golden Eagles would not go down without a fight, scoring seven of the next nine to draw the match back to 21-15. A Kissinger service error would end the run, and the Saints took control from there, cruising to a 25-17 win.

Against the run of play, the Golden Eagles would pull ahead early in the third, holding 7-4 and 10-6 leads. St. Lawrence, though, would begin slowly chipping away and, with the score 11-8, would put together a 12-3 run to pull back ahead 20-15. From there the two sides traded points until the Saints claimed the inevitable 25-19 and 3-0 victory.

St. Lawrence did well to stifle the St. Joseph's attacking, limiting Ferchland to just nine kills and Kissinger to just four. Wickline was credited with a season-low 19 assists, but junior Courtney Bocchieri's eight kills tied a season-high.