MVille-Staten Island Boxscore
MVille-Kean Boxscore
Kean-Staten Island Boxscore

PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville women's volleyball team hosted its annual Valiant Tri-Match on Saturday inside Kennedy Gymnasium, earning a split after defeating the College of Staten Island and falling to Kean University by the same 3-0 score.

Junior Damaris Morales (Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic) led Manhattanville offensively, recording 13 kills, and also added 22 digs in the six sets on Saturday. Freshman Jocelyn Branca (Eastchester, N.Y.) contributed 20 kills as well as 22 digs for the home team, while junior Makana Gomes (Honolulu, Hawaii) added a team-leading 41 assists, 31 digs and six service aces to go with four kills on the day.

Manhattanville started the morning off well, overcoming a tough first set to pick up its seventh win of the year, 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-10) over the Dolphins. Morales led the team with nine kills while Gomes added 26 assists, 20 digs and five service aces in the straight-set win.

Things were not pretty in the opening set, as the Valiants committed 15 errors on 45 attacks, and yet still overcame those stats to go up by a set early. Morales had five of the team's eight kills in the frame, as the home team held Staten Island to just four kills on 33 attacks.

The Valiants settled in offensively in the second set, registering 12 kills on 39 attacks to pick up the 25-18 win. This time it was junior Ally Johnson (Branford, Conn.) with a team-leading four kills in the frame, while Gomes had three aces late in the set that allowed the Valiants to take a two-set lead.

Manhattanville continued the pressure in the third frame, resulting in its easiest set win of the match. Freshman Susy Camaj (Lagrangeville, N.Y.) had two kills, a block and four big service aces in the set, allowing the Valiants to pick up their seventh win of the year.

The home team faced a stiffer test in its second match of the day, as the Valiants could not get a set off of Kean in a 3-0 (28-26, 25-18, 25-17) defeat. Johnson led a balanced attack with six kills, while Branca added five and a team-best 15 digs.

The opening set was a back-and-forth affair that needed some extra points to decide a winner. The frame was tied at 10-all before the Cougars made a run to take a lead, but the Valiants came back to knot the score at 20-all. The Cougars had the last multi-point lead of the set at 23-21 before a service error and a Branca kill re-tied the frame again at 23-23, and the teams alternated points until a winner was decided. Manhattanville had a game-point at 25-24 but could not convert, and Kean broke through on their third game point with a block by Samantha Sciavillo and Tara Richey to earn the game-one win.

Set two was another close affair, until a late Kean run broke it open and put the visitors up by two. After the teams traded leads a few times early on, the Cougars were holding onto a slim 18-17 advantage before four straight points on Nicole Bolash's serve – including a Bolash ace, kills by Richey and Colleen Masterson, and a combined block by the latter two – started a 7-1 run to end the frame.

Kean also utilized a run to take control of the third game, this time using a 10-1 run early in the frame to open up a 13-6 lead. The Valiants tried to come back behind four kills from Johnson, getting the lead down to just two at 17-15, but the visitors closed the match with an 8-2 stretch that sealed the victory.

Manhattanville (7-13, 0-5 Freedom) gets back into Freedom Conference play on Tuesday, as the Valiants travel to Center Valley, Pa., to take on DeSales University starting at 7 p.m.