STAFF WRITER

Having the last place team in the Atlantic 10 standings come to the Rose Hill Gym this past Sunday, Oct. 27 was good news for the Fordham volleyball team. Ranked seventh of out nine teams in the conference, and on a seven-game losing streak, the Rams needed something to lift their spirits and get them headed in the right direction again. The team’s 3-0 win over La Salle may have done just that.

The La Salle match started out strong for the Rams, who won the first set by a dominant score of 25-10. La Salle actually hung with the Rams through the first few points of the set; the score was 5-4 before the Rams took control. From that point, the Rams outscored La Salle 20-6 to take the set.

In the second set, Fordham won 25-16, after the team took control  of the game at the start. The Rams jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the set and quickly turned that into a 8-3 lead. La Salle managed to bring the score within one at 10-9, but the Rams fought off the challenge by going on a six-point scoring streak and moving the score to 15-9. The closest La Salle came after that was six points, before the Rams finished the set off.

The third set started off as a back-and-forth battle between the two teams, with a score of 5-4. The Rams then jumped out to a 11-6 lead before turning that into a 18-10 lead.  La Salle proceeded to make things interesting, however, by going on a six-point run to make the score  18-16. The Rams then answered with four straight points of their own to make it 22-16, before closing out the 25-20 set victory.

Lisa Hipp led the team in kills with 11. Abigail Konovodoff led the team in assists with 32, while Maria Rodenberg had a team-high 13 digs.

The victory moved the Rams’ record to 9-16 on the season and 2-7 in A-10 play. They are currently two games behind Dayton for the final spot in the A-10 tournament with five games left to play.

Prior to their win against La Salle, the Rams suffered another loss over the weekend, falling to VCU 0-3 on Friday, Oct. 25 at home. Coming into the game on a six-game losing streak, the Rams knew beating VCU would be a challenge considering their 9-1 A-10 record, which places them first in the conference.

In the first set, VCU jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the Rams made it a 5-4 set in their favor. Things stayed competitive as the two teams traded points before VCU’s lead was cut to only three at 15-12. However, at that point in the set, VCU got on a roll that eventually pushed them to the 25-17 victory.

Again, things were competitive in the second set, where the Rams had a 14-12 point lead before VCU went on a run to make it a 19-16 set in their favor. The Rams would get close again, making the score 17-19 before VCU once again closed things out and picked up the 25-18 victory.

The third set provided the same result for the Rams, as they kept things close early on, before eventually losing the set. A 13-12 score in favor of VCU quickly turned into a 17-12 score. VCU eventually closed out the set with a 25-17 victory.

The Rams’ final home game of the season is this Friday, Nov. 1. They will take on St. Louis to try and avenge an earlier loss that came on the road. St. Louis is currently 5-3 and fourth in the A-10 but only 9-14 overall.