BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, N.Y. – The Fairleigh Dickinson women's volleyball team dropped its second NEC game of the season to St. Francis Brooklyn on Sunday by a score of 3-2.
 
Fairleigh Dickinson found itself in a familiar situation, down 2-0 after the first two sets of the day by scores of 25-14 and 25-20. The ever-relentless Knights battled back to win the third and fourth set, 25-19 and 25-18, respectively. The Terriers took the final set 15-7 to earn the win.
 
The loss drops the Knights to 0-17 overall and 0-2 in the NEC. The Terriers improve to 6-12 overall and 1-1 in the NEC.
 
St. Francis Brooklyn opened up the first set with five straight points. The Terriers continued to build on that and eventually took a 10-2 lead before the Knights called a timeout. Fairleigh Dickinson closed the game to 16-10 but the Terriers answered with five straight points to take a 21-10 lead. St. Francis Brooklyn ended the first set on a Sidney Benson kill.
 
The Knights flipped the script to open the second set and scored the first four points which included a Kirstin Trabert (Corona, Calif./Norco) kill as well as a Trabert and Annabel Reyes (Teaneck, N.J./Immaculate Heart Academy) block. Fairleigh Dickinson added two more on a Rebecca Sabol (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Coffman) kill and a Trabert service ace. The Terriers came back to tie things 7-7. The teams traded points and the set was again tied at 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17. The Terriers took a 20-17 lead after scoring four straight points and ended things again on a Benson kill.
 
The third set was competitive right from the start. An Abigail Strebig (Brookfield, Wisc./Brookfield Central) kill tied things up, 6-6 and the Knights took their first lead of the set on a block from Reyes and Carly O'Sullivan (Bogota, N.J./Bogota). Fairleigh Dickinson slowly started building up its lead but the Terriers were never far behind. A Sabol kill gave the Knights their biggest lead of the set, 22-17. A Strebig and Caroline Laton (Kinnelon, N.J./Kinnelon) block as well as a Terriers' attack error closed things out and gave the Knights the set win.
 
In the fourth set, Fairleigh Dickinson scored four points in a row, which included a Trabert kill, a Savanna Wray (Peoria, Ariz./Sunrise Mountain) service ace and a Sabol block, to take a 5-3 lead. The Terriers came within one point, 11-10, on a Domenique Gerard kill, and eventually tied things up at 14. The set was tied again at 16, 17 and 18 but the Knights dominated the remainder of the set, scoring seven in a row to win and force a fifth set.
 
The Terriers took a commanding lead right away in the fifth and final set, outscoring the Knights 7-2 to start. Fairleigh Dickinson battled but the Terriers continued to add points after going on several runs. A Benson kill and a Terriers' block closed out the set and the match, giving St. Francis Brooklyn the win.
 
Sabol had 15 kills and six digs for the Knights. Trabert recorded 24 assists and 12 digs as well as four aces on the day.
 
The Terriers, who outhit the Knights .309 to .192, were led by Domenique Gerard with 21 kills.
 
The Knights return to action on Wednesday at home against Saint Peter's. The match is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and will also be streamed live on NECFrontRow.com.