After a head-turning 6-4 start to the season, Fordham University Volleyball lost twice at home last weekend to the defending champion Loyola University Chicago (LUC) Ramblers to open the Atlantic 10 (A-10) season. While the Rams might not be keen to celebrate anything short of a match win, they did do something they hadn’t done against LUC in 34 years: win a set.
The feat proves what became evident about this team two weeks ago — they are capable of making a top-six finish and making the A-10 playoffs, even after finishing last in their conference in 2024 and graduating many of their best players.
After being picked to finish 10th out of 10 teams in the A-10 in the preseason poll, the 2025 Rams have adopted a defense-first identity and rewritten program records through four weeks of play — but that doesn’t mean that the road back to the postseason will be easy.
On its home floor against the Ramblers, Fordham fell 3-0 on Friday, 25-21, 25-19, 25-22; and 3-1 Saturday, 25-18, 25-23, 22-25, 25-18. The Rams took time to shake off their first conference game jitters in the opener, and fatigued as play wore on Saturday, dropping to 0-2 to start A-10’s for the second straight year — but don’t get carried away comparing Fordham to its 2024 self.
The last time Fordham took a set off of Loyola Chicago was in a 2-3 loss in 1991. No one on the 2025 roster had been born yet. George Bush was president — the first one.
While they’ve only met seven times since, Fordham’s ability to keep pace with a league perennial powerhouse — one that crushed Fordham en route to a conference championship 10 months ago — confirms what Head Coach Ian Choi already knew: this year is different than last year.
“Our juniors are mentioning how this third year is probably the most cohesive year that they’ve experienced in their time at Fordham … There’s just a stark difference between a cohesive team and an incredibly cohesive team, and we’re the latter this particular season,” said the eighth-year head coach.
“It’s very fortunate for our first years, because they’ve walked into something pretty special,” he said.
A big reason for optimism is the team’s health. Junior Tatum Holderied, who missed nearly all of last season with injuries, set a new program record Saturday for blocks in a four-set match with 12. She now holds the single-game record for blocks in both four- and five-set matches. Holderied’s 2.33 blocks per set are the most in the country by a margin of 0.44 — she’s posting half-a-block more per set than the second-best blocker in the country.
Sophomore middle blocker Sophia Kuyn, who spent part of last season in a walking boot, is averaging 0.98 blocks per set and leading all Rams with a .252 hitting percentage.
Both middles have formed fully-sealed walls with senior Audrey Brown, whose 1.48 right-side blocking rate continues to be the top mark in the country. As a team, the Rams extended their program-record streak of matches with 10+ blocks to nine, adding 11 and 17 versus Loyola.
In Friday’s loss, Fordham committed brutally timed service and attacking errors; but even in its narrow victories, Loyola looked like something it never previously had: beatable.
Before the weekend, Choi said, “the overall consensus [among players] was: they’re beatable. We can beat them. And this is the first time they’ve said something that definitively about Loyola.”
While Fordham only beat Loyola in one of seven sets, the evenness of the overall competition was telling.
Junior Erynn Sweeney buoyed the Fordham attack, hammering Fordham’s final three kills in its historic set three win over Loyola Saturday, while logging 12 total putaways to lead the team. Choi is now taking a by-committee approach at outside hitter, with sophomore Gabby Destler moving into a time-share with Sweeney and senior Zoe Talabong.
Sophomore Özge Özaslan continues to star in the back row, notching a team-best 34 digs over the weekend. Junior libero Lola Fernandez, meanwhile, has been earning more reps — Choi credited Fernandez for “elevating the standard” during practices, noting that the decision on who to start at libero each match is “basically a coin flip.”
Despite the losses in the opening weekend, the tone on Rose Hill continues to be hopeful. “Last year, there was this tentativeness and concern. But this year’s message was: you don’t own what you can control, and let go of the things that you can’t,” stated Choi.
Fordham faces yet another major test this weekend when it visits the University of Dayton, where the Rams will take on a Flyers squad that finished 12th in the national Rankings Percentage Index in 2024. The trip to Ohio marks Fordham’s first trip outside of New York thus far in 2025 — the Rams went 2-11 when playing outside in the Big Apple last year.
This weekend’s matches will be broadcasted on ESPN+ Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m.
