LORETTO, PA. – FDU women's volleyball opened their weekend at Saint Francis with a thrilling five set victory to secure their 13
th consecutive win. Undefeated in conference action, the Burgundy and Blue sit at first in the NEC.
In a slow start for the Knights, FDU found themselves down early after being aced twice to open set one. Saint Francis established a rhythm the Knights could not keep up with, logging 17 kills and just four errors. With a hot hitting Red Flash squad and a struggling offense, FDU dropped set one 19-25.
Coming back with vengeance, the Burgundy and Blue jumped to an early 12-5 lead. Graduate student
Eleonora Tosi led the offense, tallying four kills. Seven blocks, three aces and 10 kills steered the Knights to a 25-17 set two victory.
Riding off the momentum from set two, FDU cruised through set three with a consistent offense and scrappy defense. Saint Francis found themselves plagued by unforced errors, logging five service and eight hitting mistakes. Using that to their advantage, the Knights tallied 12 kills and three blocks to win set three 25-22 and take a 2-1 match lead.
Set four saw a cooled off FDU squad, who struggled on both offense and defense. The Burgundy and Blue were only able to tally six kills, with three errors for a hitting clip of .107. Despite having an impressive 16 kills on the set, Saint Francis loaded up on unforced errors, giving the Knights 13 points on attacking and service errors alone. With all the momentum, the Red Flash took set four 25-20.
Despite falling to a 3-6 score to open set five, a fiery Knights squad was able to bounce back courtesy of an ace from senior
Hannah Schmidt and two kills from junior
Giorgia Vaschetti to bring the score back even. Four kills by sophomore
Avery Bain sealed the deal as FDU took the set and match victory 15-11.
The Burgundy and Blue were led by Bain and Tosi, who tallied 11 kills apiece. Defensively, FDU was led by senior
Emily Van O'Linda who totaled 12 digs on the match and junior
Kylie Nott who logged four blocks.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Knights will face Saint Francis again tomorrow (10/26) as they look for their fourth weekend on undefeated conference play. First serve is set for 1 pm at DeGol Arena and will be streamed on NEC Front Row.
