PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College women's volleyball team took to their home court for the first time in 2023 on Tuesday night, falling to Ramapo in four sets. The 3-1 decision (25-22, 23-25, 26-28, 17-25) drops the Valiants down to 1-2 on the young season.
The Valiants were led by a 35 assist, 14 dig double-double by
Vianca Vital (Carolina, Puerto Rico/Perpetuo Socorro). The graduate student joined an elite club at the conclusion of the first set, logging a dig in the deciding point to reach 1,000 for her career. Vital became just the ninth Valiant in program history to record 1,000 or more digs, the first since Monica Lopez in 2018.
Offensively, Manhattanville received double-figure kills from
Loren Hernandez (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico/American Military Academy) and
Sofia Morales (Tolland, Conn./Tolland). Hernandez led all attackers from both teams with 15 putaways, while Morales logged ten kills of her own.
Ayla Ruiz (Honolulu, Hawaii/St. Andrew's Schools) added seven kills to go along with a team-high four aces.
Grace Ballagas' (Carolina, Puerto Rico/Robinson School) 26 digs were also the most by any player on the floor on Tuesday, as the Valiant libero was heavily involved in defensive play as per usual.
In what would prove to be the theme for most of the night, the opening set was a back-and-forth battle. The Valiants and Roadrunners fought to eight separate tied scores across the opening frame, with the largest lead being just four points of separation. Tied 19-19, Hernandez logged a kill to regain the lead and the serve for Manhattanville. With Vital at the line, the Valiants rattled off three more unanswered points to go up 23-19, on the brink of taking the first set. Ramapo responded immediately with three straight points of their own to cut the lead down to one, but after a bad set regained control for Manhattanville, who would log the set point on a putaway by Morales started by Vital's milestone dig.
The teams would trade points back and forth to begin set two up to a 6-6 score. A kill by Ruiz kickstarted a 5-0 Valiant run, the largest by either team that point in the night. The Valiants continued to steadily build upon the advantage as the score climbed to 19-12 in favor of the home team. However, a Manhattanville attack error was all the Roadrunners needed to get back into the game, scoring ten straight points to swing momentum back onto the other side of the court. Manhattanville got back within a single point twice, but it was too little, too late as the Roadrunners notched the 25-23 win to even the match at a set apiece.
While the Roadrunners carried the momentum into set three with a quick 7-3 lead, Manhattanville evened things up at 7-7, the first of ten deadlocks in the frame. With the set even 15-15, kills by Ruiz and Hernandez followed by a Ruiz ace gave the Valiants some temporary breathing room. It would be short lived before Ramapo pushed the score even at 19-19, but a five point swing for the Valiants had the home squad at the brink of taking the set. A critical serving error put control of the ball back in the Roadrunners' hands, and the Valiants were just unable to find the putaway point. Ramapo came roaring back to even the set up at 24-24 and would go one to score four of the final six points to take the extended set, 28-26.
The Valiants struggled to recover from the third set heading into the fourth, hitting just 0.034 in what would prove to be the final frame. After another back-and-forth start, the Roadrunners scored three straight points to go up 7-5, a lead they would not surrender the rest of the way home, closing out the match with a 25-17 win.
Up Next
The Valiants look to rebound later this week when they host William Paterson at 6 p.m. on Thursday night.
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