Riverdale, N.Y. - The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Volleyball team was defeated in four sets on Saturday evening in the Skyline Conference Championship match at top seeded Mount Saint Vincent. The Knights were topped in the match by scores of 25-18, 22-25, 24-26, 11-25.
Mount Saint Mary got off to a good start on Saturday, winning the first set after hitting .414 as a team. With the opening frame tied at 13-13, the Knights closed on a 12-5 spurt to move in front 1-0 in the match.
Kayla Kurka (Islip, N.Y.) put away four kills for the Knights over the closing stretch and added a service ace.
Mount Saint Vincent evened the match at 1-1 after holding Mount Saint Mary to a -.103 attack percentage and rallied in the third frame to take a 2-1 lead. The Knights used a 6-0 run in the third set to move in front 21-20 on a
Kaitlin O'Brien (Staten Island, N.Y.) service ace and took a 24-22 on a Kurka winner.
Following a Mount Saint Vincent timeout, the Dolphins scored the final four points of the third frame to storm back for a 26-24 win. Coming out of the timeout, the Dolphins took advantage of two Mount Saint Mary attack errors and kills from Maria Leineweber and Zana Daluz.
The Dolphins took control of the fourth set with an 8-2 opening run and used a 6-0 spurt in the late stages of the set to take a 23-9 lead. The run was aided by four Mount Saint Mary miscues. The Knights would get a pair of kills from
Megan Williams (Glenmont, N.Y.) late in the set, but an Ashleigh Scozzari kill sealed the win for the Dolphins.
Kurka paced the Knights with 11 kills, committing just three errors in 28 attacks. She added two service aces, four digs and four total blocks for the Mount. Williams totaled nine kills and three blocks for the Knights and
Rachel Sabatini (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) chipped in with seven winners and three blocks.
Junior
Kristen Maddock (Medford, N.Y.) handed out 32 assists for Mount Saint Mary and lead the team with four service aces, with Maddock and O'Brien each lifting nine digs apiece.
Jennifer Hanley (Sayville, N.Y.) recorded four total blocks and
Jennifer Gries (Hicksville, N.Y.) led the team with 16 digs.
The Dolphins got a match-high 21 kills from Scozzari, who hit. 366 in the match. Leineweber chipped in with 12 kills, with Chrissy Sewell adding 14 digs. Nicole Henderson handed out a match-high 37 assists for Mount Saint Vincent.
For the match, Mount Saint Vincent hit .202 as a team and held Mount Saint Mary to a .112 effort. Mount Saint Vincent held a slim 45-43 edge in kills, while the Knights posted a 10-7 advantage in service aces.
Saturday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 17-19 overall on the season.
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