PURCHASE, N.Y. – After playing two of its poorest sets of the season to fall behind, 2-0, the Mount Saint Mary College women's volleyball team (20-16) rallied back to win the final three sets and take down defending champion and No. 2 seed St. Joseph's College (L.I.) (19-11), 3-2 (18-25, 7-25, 25-17, 25-15, 15-11) Friday evening at Purchase College to advance to the Skyline Conference Championship final. The Knights will face off with No. 1 The Sage Colleges tomorrow, Nov. 8, at 1 p.m. at Purchase.
The Knights had trouble finding their game early in the match, and looked doomed for a quick sweep after being blown out in the second set, 25-7, to fall to a 2-0 deficit. They slowly found their game in the third set, taking a 13-11 lead before really getting into a rhythm. They forced the Golden Eagles to take a timeout when they went up, 18-15, and another when they upped the lead to 21-15. They finished off the set with four of the last six points to take a 25-17 win and keep their hopes alive.
The Knights quickly took the lead in the fourth set, forcing St. Joe's to call its first timeout with a 5-2 Knight edge. They continued to build upon the lead, causing another Golden Eagle timeout at 17-13. They turned up the heat to close out the game with a 25-15 win and force a fifth and final set.
The Golden Eagles regained their composure to take an 8-5 lead before switching sides of the court in the fifth frame. After the Knights grabbed a point, sophomore setter
Kristen Maddock (Medford, N.Y.) served up four straight aces to put the Knights up, 10-8. The Golden Eagles got two back to tie the set at 10-10, but the Knights got the next three to go up 13-10 and send the crowd into an uproar. The Golden Eagles hushed the Mount Saint Mary fans by getting a point back, but the Knights picked up the final two to spark the celebration as they completed their most impressive and most important comeback of the season.
The Knight attack was led by senior outside hitter
Katie Lynch (Island Park, N.Y.), who threw down 10 kills in the match and hit .333. Junior outside hitter
Kayla Kurka (Islip, N.Y.) came up big on the front line with four total blocks. Sophomore setter
Claire Scully (Bloomfield, N.J.) was a big help with 21 assists in the match. Maddock added 12 more assists and led all scorers with seven aces. Freshman libero
Chelsea Barberan (Fishkill, N.Y.) picked up 15 digs.
Skyline Player of the Year Heather Ferchland had a match-high 16 kills and hit an impressive .520 on the night. Julianne Tierney dished out a match-best 30 assists, and Courtney Wickline registered 15 digs.
With the win, the Knights advance to take on top-seeded Sage tomorrow, Nov. 8, at 1 p.m. Sage advanced to the Skyline Finals after defeating No. 4 College of Mount Saint Vincent earlier in the evening, 3-0. The Gators swept the Knights, 3-0, back on Oct. 25 in a Skyline tri-match hosted at Sage. The match takes place in the middle of Saturday's Skyline Fall Festival lineup, as the women's soccer championship game between Mount Saint Mary and Farmingdale State College will kick off the day at 11 a.m. Live stats will be available for both events, and a live video stream produced by Sage will be available for the women's volleyball championship.
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