With the New York City Marathon week over, the marathon that is the collegiate volleyball regular season takes its final turn.
At the halfway mark (about a month ago) Fordham University Volleyball lost its footing and fell to the back of the pack. A month later, the team has regained its stride with the finish line in sight. As the runners (Atlantic 10 teams) romp toward the finish, though, it will take a second wind of significant proportions to propel Fordham into playoff position.
At that 13.1 mile mark, Fordham took the I-95 east to Kingston, Rhode Island, for a mid-week matchup with the University of Rhode Island. In the first edition of the battle of the Rams, it was all Rhody. In their sloppiest outing of the season, Fordham was upended via sweep by their Ram counterparts, a group picked to finish last by nine out of 10 teams in the preseason poll.
Fordham seemed motivated by the demoralizing loss, storming to a thrilling come-from-behind win versus George Mason University several days later.
As its momentum continued to build, Fordham met Rhode Island for a rematch on Tuesday, Oct. 29. This time, it was the Rams of the Bronx who did the upending, cruising to a straight-set victory on their home floor.
Fordham came out flat-footed in set one, dropping the first four points on a failed serve receive and two attack errors. Having ironed out its wrinkles, Fordham snapped into form. Fordham drilled an eye-popping 16 kills in the frame on .289 hitting, led by sophomore Lorenza Rosenkilde’s five-kill effort. Rosenkilde connected on two of the set’s last three kills, etching a 25-19 set one win into the scorecard.
Set two was the Stammeyer show. Freshman setter Emma Stammeyer continues to earn playing time with her steady second touch. In frame two, she assisted Fordham attackers on nine kills — the most assists she’s had in a set in her blossoming young career.
Another boost came in the form of junior middle blocker Alexa Pyle. Pyle had appeared in just one set all year but was called off the bench by coach Ian Choi after freshman Sophia Kuyn went down with what appeared to be an ankle injury.
The Rams are now down to just Pyle and Rosenkilde up the middle, with senior Audrey Hayes available as a third option — Kuyn joins sophomore Tatum Holderied on the bench, with Holderied nursing wrist and ankle injuries.
Pyle was not just adequate in replacement of Kuyn, but excellent. She riled up the Fordham bench with two kills and a rousing solo block. The Texas native buoyed Fordham as it clung to a narrow lead, fending off URI for a 25-20 win and going up 2-0 in the match.
Set three was a 25-21 Fordham win, marking a resounding retaliative effort in a Rams rematch. The sweep was a product of clean play, with Fordham forcing nine URI attack errors and delivering three aces in the period.
Graduate student Whitley Moody continued her tremendous farewell campaign with four kills in the set and 13 in the game, to lead all players. Right behind her was junior Audrey Brown, who knocked home 12 kills on a .400 clip. All told it was Brown’s best offensive output since the A-10 opener against Saint Louis University when she crushed 18 kills in five sets.
Stammeyer finished with a career-high 21 assists, while sophomore Whitney Woodrow tacked on 16 more. Fordham controlled the nets, in large part thanks to a four-block effort from Moody.
After their first sweep of the A-10 campaign, the Rams hoped to keep the hot hand for a two-match weekend affair against a tough Davidson College team that sat at 7-5 entering play. The Wildcats had other plans.
While the Rams threw their best punch in each of the weekend’s six sets, they didn’t force a seventh as Davidson lodged two consecutive 3-0 victories and moved to 9-5. Match one took place Saturday, Nov. 2, and was a heartbreaker — the final line read 25-21/25-22/25-23 in Davidson’s favor. The Rams were again strong at the net, combining for 10 blocks including a whopping seven solo blocks — Brown led the way with a season-high three. The Wildcats won the game on the reception, where their 67 digs far outpaced the Rams’ 46; moreover, Fordham surrendered eight aces while Davidson allowed just three.
Of the three sets, the final one was the most crushing. Fordham crawled back from an 8-3 deficit to knot the set at 17 off a Brown hammer. With Moody at the line, Fordham forced three straight Davidson errors; later, kills from Brown and Pyle made it 22-19, Rams.
With a chance to force set four, Davidson’s front line held strong, clinching the win with two double blocks in the set’s last four points.
Moody was again the leading offensive contributor with 11 kills on .281 hitting, while senior Ryan Naumann impressed in the back row with 14 digs. The Fordham block was led by freshman Bridget Woodruff, who had four, while Pyle, Brown and Rosenkilde each added three.
A 1 p.m. Sunday matinee wrote a similar script. Davidson was able to create more comfortable leads, keeping Fordham at bay for a 25-22/25-15/25-17 sweep.
Rosenkilde was the brightest of the Fordham bunch, adding four kills and five blocks to her standout second season in maroon and white. With injuries abound, the Denmark product has been a steady producer upfront.
Moody put points on the board in the loss, burying eight kills and notching four aces. Naumann got things done defensively with 13 digs; she’s got double-digit receptions in six of her last seven matches.
With just four games remaining, we again turn our eyes to the A-10 standings. Fordham’s 3-11 in-conference record puts them at ninth out of ten teams, and just one game out of playoff position. Amazingly, the bottom five teams in the conference all have four wins or less, while the top five have eight or more.
This is great news for the Rams, but it doesn’t make a repeat appearance in the A-10 tournament likely. They’ll need to win at least two, if not three of their last four to crack the top six, and they’ll have to do it against a couple of the giants within the top five. First up is Loyola University Chicago — the Wolves have put together a stellar campaign, sitting at third with a 9-5 record. Fordham flies to Chicago for a two-game set with them this weekend.
In the regular season finale, Fordham will touch its home hardwood for the final time as it hosts Virginia Commonwealth University — the A-10’s third Rams squad has been a juggernaut this year, staying undefeated against teams not named the Dayton University Flyers en route to a 12-2 record.
If Fordham can find a way to squeak out a couple of upset wins, some late November volleyball may be in store. Battered by injuries and mired in inconsistency, one final, improbable leap toward the finish line will dictate whether this season will be one to remember or forget.
