PURCHASE, N.Y. – After pulling off their best comeback of the season in Friday evening's semifinal match, the Mount Saint Mary College women's volleyball team (20-17) was unable to keep up its momentum and fell to No. 1 The Sage Colleges (24-6), 3-1 (25-19, 21-25, 25-14, 25-14), in Saturday's Skyline Conference Championship match, held at Purchase College as part of the Second Annual Skyline Conference Fall Festival.
The Knights looked good to start the opening set, jumping out to a 12-6 lead. Sage rallied back to a one-point deficit at 15-14, but the Knights picked up three-straight points to go back up, 18-14. Sage turned up the heat to win the next nine points to go up 23-18, and after the Knights ended the Gators' run, Sage quickly bounced back to take the final two points and claim the first set.
Sage kept its momentum rolling in the second set to run out to an 18-14 lead. The Knights turned it around with six straight points to take a 20-18 lead. The Knights closed out the set with five of the next eight points to tie the match at 1-1.
Sage came out flying in the third set, never yielding more than two points in a row to the Knights en route to a 25-14 win to go up 2-1 in the match. The fourth set saw the Gators go up 3-0, but the Knights then took four straight to go up, 4-3. Sage turned it right back around to take an 11-4 lead and eventually a 14-5 advantage. The Knights battled back a bit to cut the deficit to 14-8, but the Gators continued to give them a hard time to go up, 18-9. After holding a 21-14 lead, Sage finished up the set with four-straight points, claiming the match and the Skyline Title.
Sage's Helen Putriment was named the Skyline Conference Championship's Most Outstanding Player, and supported her nomination with a match-best 17 kills in the match. Rachel Martin was not far behind with 14 of her own. Rachel Liebig dished out an impressive 41 assists for the Gators. Putriment and Siena Wilder had solid defensive games as well, posting 29 and 23 digs, respectively.
Junior right side
Maribeth Powers (Yorktown, N.Y.) led the Knights with 11 kills in Saturday's loss and hit .276. Freshman middle blocker
Megan Williams (Glenmont, N.Y.) added seven kills and a block. Sophomore setters
Claire Scully (Bloomfield, N.J.) and
Kristen Maddock (Medford, N.Y.) dished out 18 and 13 assists, respectively. Maddock also added three service aces. Senior outside hitter
Katie Lynch (Island Park, N.Y.) and freshman libero
Chelsea Barberan (Fishkill, N.Y.) matched with 18 digs.
Sage earns the Skyline Conference's automatic qualifier into the NCAA Div. III Women's Volleyball Championship Tournament with Saturday's win. The Knights conclude their season as the runners-up in the Skyline Conference, with three student-athletes on the Skyline All-Conference Teams.
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