Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville women's volleyball team allowed their opponents to have all the fun on Saturday at the annual Middle Atlantic Conference Crossover Tournament, as the Valiants fell to Albright, 3-0, and Alvernia, 3-1, in non-conference action at Kennedy Gymnasium.
 
Freshman Alissa Primavera (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) and senior Susy Camaj (Lagrangeville, N.Y./Millbrook) led the Valiants offensively with 27 kills each, while juniors Jillian Chittenden (Rye, N.Y./Rye) and Amanda Materasso (Putnam Valley, N.Y./Putnam Valley) added 11 kills apiece on the day. Freshman Megan Quinabo (Pearl City, Hawaii/Kamehameha Schools-Kapalama) added a team-leading 67 assists and junior Alyssa Casino (Rye Brook, N.Y./Maria Regina) had 40 digs in seven sets to pace the team defensively.
 
Manhattanville started off the day against Albright, and had few answers for an efficient Lions attack in a 3-0 (25-11, 25-17, 25-11) defeat.
 
Camaj had a double-double for the Valiants with 12 kills and 11 digs, but Manhattanville had no real answer for the Albright trio of Christa Mantz (12 kills, 11 digs), Maddy Greth (10 kills) and Brandy Blimline (9 kills), who combined for 31 of their team's 40 kills.
 
The visitors jumped out to an early 8-3 lead in the first set, and then scored five straight points later in the frame to open up an insurmountable 15-4 lead that helped them to a set-one win. The middle frame was much more even early on, featuring eight ties as the teams remained knotted at 14. But after a kill by Mantz put Albright up 15-14, the Lions scored the next four points to take a 19-14 advantage, and the team was able to alternate points toward a two-set lead.
 
The final set was also a closely contested affair, with the score tying up at 14, 15, 16 and 17 as part of the 10 tie scores overall. However with the score tied at 17, three straight Albright points gave the visitors a 20-17 lead. Manhattanville got back within two on three occasions but was unable to string together any rallies, as Albright took the set and the match.
 
Manhattanville's second match of the day was much more frustrating, as the Valiants had a ton of opportunities to put away Alvernia but instead fell by a 3-1 (16-25, 27-25, 25-23, 25-20) score. The match was a very tight contest between two very evenly matched teams, so much so that both teams had exactly 53 kills and 23 errors and both teams scored exactly 93 points over the four sets.
 
Primavera was tremendous in this match for Manhattanville, tying for 10th on the program's single-match list with 19 kills on .347 hitting and adding 11 digs. Camaj and Quinabo also had double-doubles, with Camaj adding her second straight with 15 kills and 16 digs, followed by Quinabo placing fifth on the school's single-match assists list with 44 helpers to go with 12 digs.
 
Alvernia was led by the tandem of Kristen Rupp and Liz Newman, who had 20 and 18 kills, respectively. Rupp also added 21 digs to place second on the squad behind the match-high 32 of Toni Maurer.
 
After cruising to a first-set win, the entire tenor of the match changed in the second set, as the Valiants could not close out the Crusaders and let the visitors back into the contest. After seven ties, the home team went on a 10-3 run that made the score 22-16 in favor of the Valiants, and a kill by Chittenden made it 24-18 soon after. But Manhattanville could not close things out, squandering six set points thanks in large part to three attack errors and a service error. The home team actually fended off a set point of its own on a Camaj kill to make it 25-all, but a Jamie Morris kill and another Valiant error handed the set to Alvernia and gave them newfound momentum.
 
Manhattanville again looked to be in good shape late in the third set, as Primavera set down three straight kills to turn a 19-19 tie into a 22-19 Valiant lead. But Alvernia again came back with a 6-1 run to end the frame, led by three kills from Taylor Wesley, to take an improbable 2-1 lead.
 
Playing for their lives in the fourth set, Manhattanville had trouble getting any sort of momentum going, scoring back-to-back points only three times before a small 4-0 run brought them back into the set at 20-17. But Alvernia was content to trade points the rest of the way, eventually pulling out the comeback win.
 
The road will not get any easier for Manhattanville next week, as the Valiants return to conference play against DeSales on Tuesday evening at Kennedy Gym. The match will be video streamed live on GoValiants.TV starting at 6:55 p.m.