BALTIMORE, Md. – The Manhattanville College women's volleyball team settled for a split of two matches at the Notre Dame (Md.) University Tri-Match on Saturday afternoon, defeating Christendom College, 3-0, before falling to the host Gators by a 3-1 score at the Marion Burk Knott Sports Complex.
 
Eight different players had at least one kill for Manhattanville (6-3) on the day, led by senior Kerry Mackey (Smithtown, N.Y./Christ the King) with 16 kills, while freshman Ari Ramos (Commerce, Calif./El Rancho) returned to setting duties and picked up 62 assists on the team's 71 kills. Classmate Monica Lopez (Caguas, Puerto Rico/Notre Dame) added a team-leading 60 digs, while senior Asia-Morgohn Reid (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Nellie A. Thornton) and freshman Keisha Schutte (Ewa Beach, Hawaii/James Campbell) both had six blocks.
 
Manhattanville 3, Christendom 0 (25-10, 25-12, 25-21)
 
The Valiants used a balanced attack in their first match of the afternoon, as six different players registered kills and 10 Valiants had at least one dig in the straight-set win. The team put down 24 kills and made only nine errors in the win, while limiting Christendom to a negative hitting percentage.
 
Junior Laura LiVolsi (Washingtonville, NY/Washingtonville) led the attack with seven kills and six digs, followed by senior Meagan Dattoma (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./Comsewogue) with five kills on 10 errorless attempts (.500 hitting) and seven digs. Sophomore Austen Brauer (Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y./Hastings) had an efficient day with four kills on seven attacks to go with a block, while Lopez chipped in a match-high 18 digs.
 
Notre Dame (Md). 3, Manhattanville 1 (22-25, 25-21, 26-24, 27-25)
 
Manhattanville took the first set against Notre Dame in the final match of the day, but the host Gators stormed back to take the last three highly-contested frames to pull out the win.
 
Mackey put down a team-leading 12 kills and added eight digs in the loss, while Dattoma and Schutte both came one kill short of a double-double with 26 and 16 digs, respectively.
 
Lopez had a huge match defensively, as her season-best 42 digs finished one away from a spot in the school's single-match top-10 and are the most digs by a Valiant in over 20 years.
 
The Valiants finished strong in the opening frame, scoring five of the final six points to take a one-set lead, but Manhattanville gave away a lead in the second set, as the visitors held a 21-17 advantage before Notre Dame ran off the final eight points of the frame to even the match at a set apiece.
 
The third and fourth sets both needed more than 25 points to decide them, but the visitors could not get the big points to go their way when needed. The Valiants killed off two match points in the fourth set at 24-23 and 25-24, but two straight Gator kills put the set and the match away for the home team.
 
Manhattanville will look to regroup on Tuesday night, when the Valiants host Wilkes University in a big MAC Freedom matchup beginning at 7 p.m. at Kennedy Gym.