Fordham University Rams Volleyball’s 2024 season was a rollercoaster consisting of high expectations, unprecedented talent, an up-and-down start to the campaign and then, a derailment: injuries. The 2025 Rams, after weeks of impressive play, appear to be suffering the same déjà vu-inducing fate.

With star middle blockers Tatum Holderied and Sophia Kuyn out for much of 2024, Fordham’s block ranked 254th in the country. In 2025, with their top blockers healthy, the Rams took the nation by storm, at one point averaging nearly 3.5 blocks per set, by far the best mark in the country.

While the team started Atlantic 10 (A-10) conference play 0-4, there was plenty to be optimistic about. After all, the Rams’ losses came against the conference’s two best teams, each forced to four sets by a Fordham club that hadn’t taken a set off of either since at least 2022. With an easier schedule ahead, there was reason to believe the Rams would rebound.

Holderied, now a junior, still leads the nation in blocks per set. Even against the most potent offenses in the A-10, Holderied has kept Fordham in contention in every set she’s played.

“She doesn’t get too high, she doesn’t get too low. She’s just pretty consistent, and it shows with all her numbers,” said Head Coach Ian Choi as the A-10 season began. “The key is just keeping her healthy.”

But six games in, injuries have again forced Fordham’s most impactful player off the floor.

Holderied has dealt with shin splints for her entire college career. After a historic half-season, they’ve returned at the worst time. She’s missed three straight matches — all losses.

The Rams, as a result, have dropped to 1-8. Since beating a winless University of Rhode Island, the Rams have dropped four straight: two to well-rounded George Washington University, and two to uber-talented, but beatable, Duquesne University.

Fordham logged a mere 16 blocks in its Holderied-less matches, by far its lowest output over a three-game stretch all season. With Holderied, the Rams would have, on average, posted 31.5 blocks in those 10 sets of play.

In the absence of Holderied, Duquesne senior Ariel Helm abused Fordham on overpasses and quick sets. In last Friday’s 3-1 Dukes win, Helm, in her 95th collegiate match, notched a career-high 14 kills.

In the sets Fordham lost, it lost as badly as it had in Choi’s entire eight-year tenure. Duquesne’s wins were 25-9, 25-11, 25-11; the 25-9 loss was Fordham’s worst single-set defeat since a 25-8 shellacking at the hands of a top-20 ranked Dayton University team last season.

Despite losing 50-20 in sets one and two, Fordham came out of nowhere to win set three, 25-23. The spark came from the unlikeliest of candidates: sophomore outside hitter Mila Micunovic.

“[Micunovic] had to sit out all of spring last season. So, it’s basically her being kind of a freshman again this year,” said Choi.

In limited action in 2025, she hadn’t found her groove, at times becoming the victim of unbelievably unlucky bounces, rolls and blocks. Choi, though, remains high on the 6’4” pin hitter: “I’m still waiting on what she can do, but I think a lot of it.”

Micunovic subbed in with just three kills on the season and a -.207 hitting percentage. By the time Fordham swapped sides for set four, she had hammered five errorless kills, a single-set career high, willing the seemingly exhausted Rams to victory.

Despite the bright spot on Friday, Fordham hit a season-low in Saturday’s 3-0 loss. Midway through set one, Kuyn skied above the net for a joust. When she came down, her ankle gave out.

It’s an apparent right ankle sprain for Kuyn, whose 2024 season ended with an ankle injury. Kuyn could not put weight on the foot, receiving treatment and a wrap on the sidelines. She did not return to the court.

The Rams, who entered the campaign with just three rostered middle blockers, are down to one. Since rotational rules effectively requires two middle blockers to be playing, freshman Avery Boothe — a right-side hitter, not a middle blocker — was thrust into her first-ever collegiate appearance when Kuyn went down. The 6’4” Boothe held up relatively well in the middle, tallying a pair of blocks.

And yet, with a weakened front line, Fordham allowed Duquesne to hit .324 and .337 in their two matches — two of the three highest outputs surrendered by the Rams all year. Duquesne’s middle blockers pummeled 17 kills in Kuyn’s absence Saturday.

Suddenly, Fordham will rely on the out-of-position Boothe and fellow freshman Sophia Oliveira to clog the middle of the floor for its most important matches of the season.

The battered and bruised Rams sit at ninth in the A-10 conference standings as of now, but just two games from a playoff spot. They travel to St. Louis this weekend for Friday and Saturday matchups with a 2-7 Billikens squad, badly needing at least one win — and a couple magical healing potions — to get another rollercoaster year back on track.