In a five-year career defined by dominance, graduate student Whitley Moody has saved her most dominant stretch of play for her final run with Fordham University Volleyball. While The Fordham Ram took a week off for midterms, Moody took no time off, playing every point of every set in some of the Rams’ most pivotal matchups, leading the team to its first two conference victories and setting a monumental record in the process.
In 1992, Val Bosticco set a Fordham record for career kills, notching 1,443 over a prolific four-year tenure. 32 years later, Moody stands alone atop Fordham Volleyball’s highest mountain: in set one of play against the University of Rhode Island two weeks ago, with her family in attendance, Moody slammed home her 1,444th kill. Now cemented among, if not above, the greatest players to ever don the maroon and white, Moody celebrated by kicking off the best five-game stretch of play in her illustrious career.
While Fordham underwhelmed against Rhode Island, getting swept by the team picked almost unanimously to finish last in the Atlantic 10, Moody managed to tally 16 kills on .308 hitting, adding nine digs and a pair of service aces.
As the Rams took the I-95 back to Fordham for a back-to-back with the George Mason University Patriots, Moody’s momentum spread to the rest of the team. In an all-encompassing effort, the Rams knocked off the Patriots for their first conference win in a thrilling five-set duel. Moody, of course, led the way: she finished with 18 kills, four aces and eight digs.
She wasn’t alone, though. With the Rams facing a 1-0 deficit in the match, junior Zoe Talabong checked in for just her 22nd set of the season. Talabong was a premier player on the attack for Fordham in 2023. This year, until this very set, she was seldom given the opportunity to shine. Talabong was resilient, keeping her head up as a stout GMU front blocked her first kill attempts. She made up for the tough start with a slew of hustle plays and a trio of momentum-swinging hammers to help the Rams surge from a 15-11 deficit to a 25-23 win, knotting the match at one.
Unphased by the Rams’ relentlessness, the Patriots came out strong in set three, crushing 13 kills en route to a 25-14 set victory — Fordham, who entered play 0-5 in the A-10, would need contributions from top to bottom in order to flip the script and finally enter the win column.
That contribution came in the form of freshman Bridget Woodruff. The lefty right-side hitter gave the Rams a desperately needed jolt when she entered the game in set four after sitting out the game’s first 139 points. Woodruff skied for a block immediately, causing the bench to erupt. The next point, she tooled an attack off a pair of Patriot blockers to give the Rams a 9-2 lead. Fordham cruised to a 25-14 win, sending the match to a pivotal fifth frame.
In the race to 15, GMU burst out in front. With the scoreboard reading 13-8, Patriots, it seemed like the Rams were in for yet another heartbreaking loss.
After a Patriots service error, senior Ryan Naumann stepped to the back line. Naumann was relegated to a service specialist role for the game after spending much of the season as the squad’s lead libero. In her absence, sophomore Lola Fernandez and freshman Özge Özaslan turned in productive performances, digging out 16 and seven Patriot attacks, respectively.
Despite the reduced role, Naumann made her imprint with Rams’ backs against the wall. Subbing in for freshman middle blocker Sophia Kuyn, who had a staggering six-block afternoon, Naumann immediately delivered an ace — 13-10. The Patriots chose to regroup and called a timeout; however, it made no difference. Naumann drilled another ace on a line drive, 13-11. Naumann delivered another clean serve, putting GMU on the defensive; a weak attack attempt gave sophomore Lorenza Rosenkilde a chance to stuff the Patriots at the net, 13-12.
As Naumann readied to serve her fourth consecutive point, no one in the gym could’ve imagined the events that would follow. Naumann’s serve was another good one, but the Patriots’ return was even stronger, putting the Rams on their heels. In a display of tenacity that perfectly encapsulates the effort and irrepressible spirit of this Fordham team, Talabong, Naumann and Moody each dove to the hardwood to save the ball — and the game — before Moody regained her footing and unleashed a ferocious strike, tying the game and bringing nearly the entire Fordham bench to their knees in awe.
There are some moments in sports whose brilliance remains etched in your memory for ages, and there are some moments in sports that epitomize the legendary nature of a player: this was both.
Having completed an unconscionable comeback to even the score, the Rams still needed two more points. The Patriots called timeout to disrupt the Rams’ groove, successfully stymying the Rams’ run by netting a kill to go up 14-13. With the match on the line, Rosenkilde and sophomore Whitney Woodrow rose to the occasion — literally — and defiantly blocked the Patriots’ game-winning spike. Woodrow, who delivered a stunning 28 assists, 20 digs and three blocks, the latter two numbers being career bests, took to the service line.
After a clean serve from Woodrow, Fernandez hit the deck to receive a hard-hit Patriot attack, helping to return the ball to GMU’s side, where they made a critical attack error, giving Fordham its first lead of the set.
With the match hanging in the balance, Fordham head coach Ian Choi dropped to a crouch, his hands clasped in prayer — a prayer answered by Moody. The all-time greatest attacker in Rams history uncorked a hit for the ages, finding enemy hardwood and causing a frenzy at midcourt, where the entire Fordham team stormed her in celebration.
It was, undoubtedly, the most exhilarating and rewarding game of the Rams’ season, and no better occasion for the acquisition of their first A-10 win.
The next day, a taxed Fordham team put together a solid, but outmatched, three sets of play in a GMU sweep. Moody dazzled once more, notching 18 kills, six digs, three aces and two blocks. Woodrow was exceptional, too, racking up 30 assists and 19 digs. Meanwhile, Talabong continued to prove her worth with a season-high 16-dig output.
Fordham had sets two and three in their grasp before late Patriots runs flipped the script. Play was even in set three, with Fordham hanging on to a lead, eventually bringing the score to 24-21. As the Patriots began to rally, the Rams called timeout and freshman Mila Micunovic did the worm as a rallying act; her impressive rendition was not enough, though, as the Patriots powered forward to a 26-21 comeback victory, clinching the sweep in an act of redemption for their crushing loss the day prior.
After catching their breath, the Rams boarded the bus for another road trip, venturing to Pittsburgh for two contests with the Duquesne University Dukes. In game one, the Dukes initially outplayed the Rams, cruising to a 25-20 set one win. From there, it was Moody Madness.
She tormented the Dukes’ back row to the tune of 25 kills — a career-high in a career of highs. The performance set a team record in addition to a personal record, with her 25 hammers being the most of any Fordham player of all time in a four-set match.
Talabong continued her stellar play, too, racking up another 15 digs. Naumann got some reps in as the team’s lead libero, adding 13 digs and four aces as her stellar serving stretch carried over into Pittsburgh. Junior Mackenzie Colvin got in the mix, as well, setting up 19 Fordham kills in a season-best showing — Colvin also played an instrumental role in raising awareness for Muscular System Atrophy during the GMU series, when the team partnered with Mission MSA to raise $1,000 for the cause.
The Rams clinched a 3-1 win, 20-25/25-18/25-23/25-18, their second triumph in as many weeks. Similar to their GMU series, though, the team came out flat on the latter half of the back-to-back. Much like the week before, Fordham played decently while their opponent played better. Fordham snatched set two, but Duquesne took one, three and four, ending the weekend on the right note.
Moody continued her torrid stretch with 20 kills on .305 hitting, while Talabong tacked on 10 more. Moody now ranks second in the A-10 in kills/set with 3.85; Naumann led the way defensively with 19 digs; Moody added 15 and Talabong had 12, while Rosenkilde and Kuyn posted five and four blocks, respectively, in a stout defensive turnout. After the loss, the Rams stand at 2-7 in-conference, good for ninth in the A-10 and two games out of the sixth and final playoff spot. Their road to the postseason will get harder before it gets easier, though.
As Fordham returns to Rose Hill for a two-game bout with the A-10’s juggernaut, a Dayton University Flyers team ranked number 20 in the nation, the Rams will look for another dose of Moody Magic in hopes of handing the Flyers their first loss in over a month. The matches will be played Friday at 6 p.m., and Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Rose Hill Gymnasium — attendance ought to be mandatory as one of the conference’s greatest-ever players takes one of the conference’s greatest-ever teams.
