Newburgh, N.Y. – Playing for the first time since October 12, the Mount Saint Mary College Women's Volleyball team suffered a 17-25, 9-25, 14-25 non-conference loss to visiting FDU-Florham on Thursday night. Senior Jackie Survilla (West Islip, N.Y.) finished the night with a team-high 12 digs.
 
Mount Saint Mary held leads of 4-1, 5-2 and 6-3 early in the opening set on Thursday, but saw the visiting Devils use a three point spurt to knot the score at 9-9 and then a four point run to open a 20-16 lead late in the frame. FDU went on to score the final five points of the first set, keyed by kills from Melissa Gaffney and Marissa Lehnert, to open a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
The Devils would hit an efficient .355 in the second frame and opened up the set with a 7-1 run to take a 16-6 lead. Following an FDU service error, the Knights managed just two more points the rest of the way, with FDU scoring nine of the final 11 points. Lehnert and Lauren Harris each produced a pair of kills over the closing run for the Devils.
 
FDU used another 7-1 run early in the third frame to take a 13-6 lead and scored the final five points of the frame, including a pair of kills from Gaffney, to close out the Devils' second sweep of the Knights during the 2017 season.
 
FDU hit .298 as a team on Thursday and showed a pair of players in double-figures in kills. Gaffney led all players with 12 winners, hitting .357, to go along with nine digs, while Harris put away 10 kills and added 14 digs. Rachel Catena led the team with 15 digs and equaled the match-high with three aces, while Courtney Conte led all players with 36 assists.
 
Megan Williams (Glenmont, N.Y.) and Danielle Kralik (Bedford Hills, N.Y.) led the Mount with six kills apiece, with Ally Klesin (Glendale, N.Y.) and Renee Hydo (Bethpage, N.Y.) each producing three winners for the Knights.
 
Survilla led a pair of players in double-figures in digs with a team-high 12 to go along with a kill, while Julimar Figueroa (Doroado, Puerto Rico) lifted 10 digs. Kim Gries (Hicksville, N.Y.) finished up the night with 20 assists and five digs.
 
Overall, FDU finished with the advantage in kills 40-23, aces 6-1 and total team blocks 7-1. Lehnert led all players in the match with five total blocks for the Devils.
 
At 9-17 overall on the season, Mount Saint Mary closes the home regular season schedule on Saturday when it plays host to Purchase and St. Joseph's-Brooklyn on Senior Day. The Purchase match is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. with the St. Joseph's contest set for 3:00 p.m.