HACKENSACK, N.J. – The Fairleigh Dickinson volleyball team won a five-set, 3-2, thriller over Saint Francis U on Sunday.
 
The Knights showed tenacity after falling behind 2-0 in the match before coming back to win the final three sets.
 
The Knights fell 25-20 in the first set and 25-11 in the second set and came back to win the third set 26-24, the fourth set 25-23 and the fifth set 15-7.
 
With the win, Fairleigh Dickinson improves to 2-18 overall and 1-3 in the Northeast Conference. The Knights finish the week 2-1. Saint Francis U drops to 4-13 overall and 0-4 in conference play.
 
Fairleigh Dickinson was led by Taylor Wyckoff (San Diego, Calif./Clairemont) and Emma Liller (Germantown, Md./Northwest ), who each had 11 kills on the day. The pair also had five digs apiece. Abigail Strebig (Brookfield, Wisc./Brookfield Central) had nine kills for the Knights.
 
Saint Francis U gained a slight 7-4 advantage in the first set after scoring two straight points off of kills from Breanna Opera and Emily Marcinowski. The Knights kept things within three points until two more Red Flash points gave them a 15-11 edge. Fairleigh Dickinson nearly evened things out after scoring five straight points, cutting the deficit to 19-18. The Red Flash went on to outscore the Knights 6-2 to end the first set.
 
Fairleigh Dickinson struggled in the second set of the day. Hitting -.154 compared to Saint Francis U's .192.
 
The Knight started out on top, outscoring the Red Flash 4-1 but Saint Francis U quickly evened things out and scored six points in a row to take a 10-5 lead. The Red Flash then scored another four straight points, taking a 14-6 lead. Saint Francis U continued its momentum, going on another 9-0 run to make it set point. The Red Flash close the set out with a Sophia Esposito kill.
 
Fairleigh Dickinson came out in the third and scored the first four sets and remained in the lead until Saint Francis U eventually tied things up at seven. The game was tied several times at nine, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. The Knights broke the tie with two points in a row to take the 20-19. The Red Flash came back to take a 22-21 lead but the Knights added three straight points on kills from Carly O'Sullivan (Bogota, N.J./Bogota) and Emma Liller (Germantown, Md./Northwest ) to get the 24-22 edge. Saint Francis U tied the set at 24 before Fairleigh Dickinson closed the set out, benefitting from a service error and with a block from Wyckoff and Laton.
 
The Knights rolled the momentum into the fourth set, scoring the first five points and forcing the Red Flash to call a timeout to regroup. Saint Francis U scored four straight points to cut the lead to 5-4 and eventually tied things up at seven. The Knights tied things at eight and scored two more points to take a 10-8 lead. Fairleigh Dickinson built a 20-17 lead following kills from Strebig and Liller. The Red Flash came close to tying, but only got within one point of the Knights the rest of the set. An Erika Sullivan (Elk Grove, Calif./Pleasant Grove) kill closed things out to force a decisive fifth set.
 
Fairleigh Dickinson jumped out to a 2-0 lead to get things going in the fifth set. The Knights went on to score four points in a row to take a 6-1 lead over the Red Flash. Saint Francis U could not score more than two points in a row and the Knights continued to build up a lead. A Strebig kill and a Red Flash attack error closed things out and gave Fairleigh Dickinson its first conference win of the year and second win of the week.
 
The Knights are back in action next weekend with a pair of road games. They take on Central Connecticut at 1 p.m. on Saturday and Bryant at 1 p.m. on Sunday.