MAHWAH, N.J. – The third-seeded Manhattanville College women's volleyball team made a Valiant run at the ECAC Div. III Metro/Upstate Championships on Saturday, defeating second-seeded Kean University by a 3-1 score in the semifinals before succumbing in four sets to top-seeded Ramapo College in the championship game at Ramapo's Bradley Center.
 
Sophomores Kerry Mackey (Smithtown, N.Y./Christ the King) and Meagan Dattoma (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./Comsewogue) tied for the team lead with 22 kills on the day, while freshman Christina Nardi (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) dug out a team-best 60 balls and junior Megan Quinabo (Pearl City, Hawaii/Kamehameha Schools-Kapalama) added a team-leading 59 assists and 43 digs.
 
In the first match of the day, Manhattanville battled past a tough Kean squad to advance to the championship round with a 3-1 (25-18, 25-23, 18-25, 25-21) victory.
 
Mackey led the squad with 13 kills, followed closely by Dattoma with 12. Quinabo had another double-double with 31 assists and 23 digs, while Nardi added a match-high 37 digs for the Valiants, the most in any match since Alyssa Casino (Rye Brook, N.Y./Maria Regina) '15 in 2012 and the most for a Valiant in a match of four sets or less since the program re-started in 2007.
 
The Valiants started out strong with a first-set victory, using an 11-2 run to turn an 11-all set into a 22-13 Valiant lead and eventually a 1-0 lead. The second set was pivotal, as Manhattanville battled back from a late deficit to grind out a win. The Valiants used two Dattoma kills and a pair of Kean errors to get back to even, and eventually took a 23-22 lead on a kill from freshman Laura LiVolsi (Washingtonville, NY/Washingtonville). After the Cougars tied the score, Kean followed with back-to-back hitting errors to give the set to Manhattanville.
 
Kean had its best set in the third frame to stay in the match, but Manhattanville closed things out in the fourth with a match-high 13 kills, led by five from Mackey and three each from Dattoma and sophomore Asia Reid (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Nellie A. Thornton High School).
 
Manhattanville fought hard in the title round, but a hard-hitting Ramapo squad was too much to overcome in the Roadrunners' 3-1 (25-14, 25-16, 24-26, 25-11) victory.
 
Dattoma paced the Valiants with a team-high 10 kills and Mackey added nine, while Quinabo added a strong double-double of 28 assists and 20 digs. Ramapo was led by Larysa Iwaskiw, who put down a superb 34 kills on 81 attempts as part of an attack that recorded 66 kills in four sets.
 
The Valiants had their best set of the match in the third stanza, when the team put down 16 kills to stay alive with a 26-24 win. The visitors battled back from an early 8-3 deficit, getting two kills each from Dattoma, Mackey and LiVolsi to even the match at 10. The match was tied at 21, 22, 23 and 24 before Mackey ended the frame with a kill and a service ace, temporarily keeping the Valiants alive.
 
The weekend puts a cap on an excellent season for Manhattanville, which finishes the year at 19-10 to mark both the most wins and the highest winning percentage in a single season since 2000. Quinabo finished the season with 821 assists, coming just nine short of the program single-season record of 830 set by Jodi Kiggins in 1986, while Mackey and junior Alissa Primavera (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) finished the season fifth and sixth in program history in single-season kills as well.
 
The Valiants are set to return all but one player next season, as Manhattanville looks to make a run at the MAC Freedom Tournament.