MVille-York Boxscore
York-PSU Boxscore
MVille-PSU Boxscore

PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville women's volleyball put together an excellent showing at its annual Valiant Tri-Match at Kennedy Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon, as the Valiants defeated both York (N.Y.) and Penn State-Abington in straight sets to emerge from the first weekend of play undefeated. The home team defeated the Cardinals, 3-0 (25-14, 25-5, 25-9), in the first match of the day before ending the afternoon with a 3-0 (25-6, 25-14, 25-9) win over the Nittany Lions.

Senior Ally Johnson (Branford, Conn./Branford) led Manhattanville with 19 kills on the day, while freshman Veronica Ferreiras (Rockville Centre, N.Y./Malverne) added a team-leading 31 assists and tied for the day-high in service aces with 10 along with classmate Sam Delmer (Boise, Idaho/Eagle), who also posted a team-best 28 digs in the six sets.

In the two matches, Manhattanville hit .287 as a team and posted 65 kills to the opponents' 17, led by the stellar .474 hitting of sophomore Susy Camaj (Lagrangeville, N.Y./Millbrook) and the .406 clip of Johnson. The team also served up 35 service aces (nearly six per set) and conversely ceded just two.

Manhattanville wasted no time asserting itself during the first match of the day, as the home team swept past York in impressive fashion. As a team, Manhattanville hit .385 with 33 kills and only eight errors in 65 attempts, while also firing 20 service aces.

Johnson had a very good showing to lead the Valiant offensive attack, hitting an incredible .714 with 11 kills and only one error. Classmate Makana Gomes (Honolulu, Hawaii/'Iolani) also reached double figures in kills with 10, in addition to her 10 assists and seven digs. The home team also received solid performances from Delmer and Ferreiras, as the former led all players with 16 digs and seven aces while the latter had a match-high 17 assists.

After struggling somewhat through the opening frame, Manhattanville really hit its stride in the final two sets, posting 23 kills and just one error to close out the contest. The middle set was never in doubt after Delmer rattled off 14 straight points on her serve to start the frame, including four aces, to put the home team ahead for good. In the set, the Valiants posted a match-high 13 kills and just one error on their 23 attempts (.522).

York hung around to start the third set, as the Valiants led by just three at 9-6, but six straight points on the serve of Camaj helped to give the Valiants some breathing room. After a kill by senior Maggie Black (Seattle, Wash./The Center School) made the score 17-8, freshman Janelle Lawrence (New Windsor, N.Y./Newburgh Free Academy) stepped to the line and served four aces while winning seven straight points on her serve to conclude the contest. Manhattanville was perfect in the final set offensively, posting 10 kills without an error in 20 attempts (.500).

After York and PSU-Abington staged a back-and-forth five-setter in the middle match of the day, Manhattanville returned to the court for the final match of the afternoon and promptly picked right up where the team had left off. The team hit .205 and recorded 32 kills, but more impressively the defense allowed just six kills and forced 21 attack errors for the Nittany Lions.

As was the theme of the day, the Valiants got off to another good start against PSU, as Johnson put down kills on the first three points of the match and the serving combination of Delmer and Ferreiras helped the home team to an 11-2 lead in cruising to a set-one win.

The Valiants scored 14 points before the Nittany Lions got their third in the middle frame, with Delmer starting out the set with three straight aces. The final set followed a similar pattern: Manhattanville scored eight straight points on Ferreiras' serve early on to build up a 12-2 lead and never was challenged.

Manhattanville (3-0) will conclude its season-opening four-match homestand on Wednesday night, as the Valiants look to match the best start to a year in program history against non-conference John Jay College at 7 p.m. The match will be video streamed live on GoValiants.TV starting at 6:55 p.m.