PATCHOGUE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College women's volleyball team swept two matches at Saturday's St. Joseph's (L.I.) College Tri-Match, beating Baruch College and the host Golden Eagles to give head coach Amanda Alayon the 100th and 101st victories of her career.
 
Already the winningest coach in program history, Alayon is the ninth head coach in any sport to record 100 victories at Manhattanville and the fourth active Valiant mentor to reach the century mark. The seventh-year coach is 100-90 in her time at the school.
 
On the court, senior Kerry Mackey (Smithtown, N.Y./Christ the King) hit .500 with 21 kills and only three errors on 36 attacks in the two victories, while junior Laura LiVolsi (Washingtonville, NY/Washingtonville) followed close behind with 20 kills and also ranked second on the squad with 24 digs. Freshmen Ari Ramos (Commerce, Calif./El Rancho) and AnnaMaria Evers (Bronx, N.Y./Preston) split the setting duties, recording 40 and 23 assists, respectively, while classmate Monica Lopez (Caguas, Puerto Rico/Notre Dame) chipped in a team-best 41 digs.
 
Manhattanville 3, Baruch 0 (25-10, 25-20, 25-19)
 
LiVolsi led Manhattanville in the first match of the day, posting a double-double with a match-high 10 kills on .421 hitting and a team-best 15 digs. Senior Meagan Dattoma (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./Comsewogue) added seven kills and eight digs as part of a well-rounded Valiant attack.
 
The Valiants jumped out to an early lead in the first set, getting six straight points on Ramos' serve to take a 12-3 lead, and then closed out the frame with five more points with Ramos at the service line.
 
The middle frame was easily the most competitive, featuring 11 ties. The last tie came at 16-all before back-to-back kills from LiVolsi and senior Asia-Morgohn Reid (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Nellie A. Thornton) put the Valiants ahead for good. Manhattanville closed the frame with a 9-4 run to take a two-set lead.
 
Baruch led for much of the third set, grabbing the first two points and holding the lead until a Dattoma kill put Manhattanville up 17-16. The kill was part of a 5-0 run that put the Valiants ahead for the first and only time of the set, as the team closed out the match and gave Alayon her 100th career win.
 
Manhattanville 3, St. Joseph's 0 (26-24, 25-16, 25-15)
 
Mackey led the charge in the second match of the day, hitting .615 with 17 kills and only one error on 26 attempts in the straight-set win. LiVolsi just missed another double-double with 10 kills and nine digs, while Lopez chipped in 27 digs in three sets and Evers had 23 assists in just two sets of action.
 
The Valiants as a team hit .282 for the match, putting down 45 kills and making only 10 errors on 124 attacks. In the final two sets, Manhattanville recorded 33 kills with only three errors, hitting .457 in the second set and .424 in the third.
 
Manhattanville jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the opening set but the Golden Eagles slowly clawed back, eventually evening the set at 17. The frame was tied four more times, including at 24-all after a SJC kill on set point. But back-to-back kills from Mackey finally closed the door and put the Valiants up a set.
 
The next two sets were considerably easier, with the visitors trailing for only two points. The Valiants' lead grew to as many as nine points on two occasions in the second stanza as the team took the first point and never trailed. Down 4-3 in the third, Manhattanville went on a 7-1 run to regain the lead and then added a 10-4 stretch to secure the set and the sweep.
 
Manhattanville will return to MAC Freedom play on Wednesday with another very important match, as the Valiants travel to Misericordia University for a 7 p.m. meeting with the Cougars.