Fordham Volleyball opened up its Atlantic 10 schedule this weekend at the Rose Hill Gym, playing the Duquesne University Dukes twice on Friday and Saturday. They managed to go 1-1, with the first win coming in a narrow 3-2 thriller.
The team began by winning the first set before dropping the next two. After that, they closed out the last two sets thanks to an outstanding clutch performance from freshman Lola Fernandez, who was able to score five straight serves to secure the come-from-behind victory in the last set. More highlights included freshman Tatum Holderied finishing with 10 blocks, making for a great individual defensive showing for the freshman. After the win, head coach Ian Choi expressed his pride in the team, saying, “Our team’s choice to stay present and dial in throughout those critical moments proves that this will be a special year. I’m proud of every student-athlete on this team!” Seeing such strong belief in a team is always a great sign, and is representative of the stellar and historic season the Rams have had up to this point.
However, the team would struggle on Saturday against the same Duquesne team.
The second match was not nearly as successful, as the Rams started off slow and were never able to recover. They lost the first set 25-20, the second 25-23 and the third 25-18. The Dukes made adjustments and were much better prepared in the second game than in the previous. Though disappointing, the loss is not completely unexpected as the team plays all conference opponents twice, and teams often split wins as game-planning can be adjusted for different approaches depending on how a team fared in the first match.
In both matches, the top three in kills for Fordham were the same, with senior Whitley Moody, sophomore Audrey Brown and graduate student Nailah Jenkins leading the team.
Freshman Whitney Woodrow led the team in assists in both matches with 36 and 27 a piece.
Now sitting at 10-2 on the season, the Rams will hope to bounce back from the loss as they take on the outstanding 13-2 University of Dayton Flyers this Friday and Saturday in Ohio. Dayton has played and hung with some of the top teams in the country, including three ranked teams in #2 Louisville, #12 Marquette and #24 Western Kentucky, the last of which they defeated 3-0.
It will be a proper test for Fordham, a team that has been playing about as well as this program has ever seen.
