BETHLEHEM, PA- FDU Women's Volleyball (4-7) beat Lehigh (8-3) in a high-energy five-set match at Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. Freshman MacKenzy Ruggiero returned to her hometown for the first time as a Knight and was outstanding. Energized by friends and family, Ruggiero had a career-high 14 kills.

• Ruggiero finished with a match-high .565 hitting percentage. 
• Kylie Nott added 12 kills, 8 digs and Madisyn Beirne had 10 kills, 9 digs.
• Emily Van O'Linda was unstoppable on defense with 19 digs playing the libero position and Allegra Rivas dug out 11 balls.

• A point-for-point set until it was tied at 17, and Lehigh went on a quick three point spurt to break away and take the set 25-21.
• The Mountain Hawks hit .529 in the set and were too much for the Knights to overcome.

• FDU flipped the script in set 2 going on a 7-0 run with the score tied at 18 to win the set 25-18.
• Sophia Spiridonakos got the Knights out in front early with a kill and an ace.
• During the 7-0 run to end the set, Ruggiero put down four kills and the Knights defense caused several attack errors from Lehigh.

• FDU swung away all of set 3 with 5 kills from both Nott and Ruggiero. Lehigh panicked and FDU pulled ahead 25-21. 
• Once again, with the score tied at 17, the winning plays by Giorgia Vaschetti (two kills), Megan Bushnell (service ace), and a Ruggiero kill gave the Knights the cushion they needed at 22-17 to go on and win the set.
• FDU had a .375 hitting percentage versus Lehigh who struggled with a .188 percentage.

• Lehigh got an early lead, 9-5, with strong defense and sided out after each FDU point to go on short runs and would go on to win the set easily 25-12. 

• In the decisive set, the Knights were unstoppable with seven kills, five of them from Nott, and earned seven points from Lehigh's swinging errors. 
• FDU held Lehigh to a negative hitting percentage and ended the match on a 5-0 run.

"What a match for this team! Our ladies really stepped up and played winning volleyball." Coach Nguyen said. "We were making scrappy plays and staying together as a team. All of the Freshmen really stepped up. It was good to see MacKenzy go back home and perform the way she did."

"It was great pulling out a win back in my hometown and it was great going through that fifth set with the confidence we had in each other." Ruggiero said. " It really felt like a huge team win tonight."

FDU travels to the Jersey Mike's Arena for the Rutgers tournament this weekend to compete Saturday against Rutgers at 10 a.m. and Princeton at 4 p.m. They are back on Sunday to play FIU at 10 a.m.
 

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