BOSTON, Mass. – The Manhattanville University women's volleyball team split a tri-match at Emerson on Saturday afternoon to wrap up the season's opening weekend in Boston. After sweeping Nazareth in the opener, the Valiants fell to host Emerson in four sets to head back home holding a 2-1 record.
Match One Recap: Manhattanville 3, Nazareth 0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-22)
The Valiants snatched a second-straight win to open up the year with a sweep of the Golden Flyers to begin Saturday's action.
Loren Hernandez' (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico/American Military Academy) 12 kills and four service aces led the Valiants' offensive effort. She was followed closely by
Ayla Ruiz (Honolulu, Hawaii/St. Andrew's Schools) who put away 10 balls and service a pair of aces against Nazareth.
Emily Brown (Kaneohe, Hawaii/Damien Memorial) coupled a season-high six kills.
Alana Rivera (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico/Colegio Marista de Guaynabo) collected her first double-double of the season with 28 assists and 10 digs.
Grace Ballagas (Carolina, Puerto Rico/Robinson School) finished as Manhattanville's defensive leader with 17 digs while adding four assists and three aces. Ruiz and
Meghan Wildes (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) both recorded three blocks at the net.
The Valiants were slow to find their footing, with Nazareth jumping out to a 7-1 lead to open play. With a pair of Golden Flyer aces coupled with three Valiant errors putting Manhattanville in the hole, the match's designated home team rattled off eight unanswered points to storm all the way back. Manhattanville never relinquished the lead in the set with a Hernandez ace putting the close on a 25-19 opening win.
A more back-and-forth affair in the second frame, Naz and Manhattanville battled to 12 ties throughout the set. Both squads jockeyed for the lead, neither able to piece together a run of more than three points for most of the going. The Golden Flyers staked claim to the largest advantage at 18-14 on three unanswered scores, but as was the case in the set prior, Manhattanville firmly took control with a sustained run. A Hernandez kill began the Valiants' 7-0 run that put Manhattanville in the lead for good. The Golden Flyers did come back to within one, but back-to-back kills by
Samantha Andriola (Garden City South, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy) and Ruiz captured set point, 25-22.
Both teams did their finest hitting of the match in the third set, but the Valiants were able to outlast Nazareth with a .297 hitting percentage to close out the sweep. Once again the squads traded blows with short runs through the early going before Nazareth found a rhythm, rattling off six straight points to go up 18-16. The Flyers continued to lead up to 21-18 before the Valiants pieced together their longest run of  the frame with five straight points to go ahead 23-21. A Zoe Typlipakis kill kept Nazareth alive, but a kill by Brown and a final putaway by Hernandez earned the Valiants their second match win of the week, 25-22.
Match Two Recap: Manhattanville 1, Emerson 3 (25-21, 16-25, 19-25, 16-25)
Manhattanville was unable to make it a perfect 3-for-3 trip out of Boston as an explosive Lions attack was too much for the Valiants to keep pace with in the second match of the day.
Ruiz took point in the offensive play with 18 kills, the most the senior had recorded in a match since 2022's Skyline Conference Title match against USMMA when she had 20. Hernandez supplied 13 kills alongside 13 digs for her first double-double of the campaign, while
Sofia Morales (Tolland, Conn./Tolland) logged seven kills.
Ballagas joined Hernandez in double-figures defensively with a team-high 17 digs, while Jennings and Andriola both dug out six balls. Andriola and Rivera split setter responsibilities, combining for 39 of the team's 43 assists.
The Valiants won a fourth-straight set on the day after erasing Emerson's early four-point lead. Down 6-9, Manhattanville took advantage of an Emerson service error that began an extended 12-2 run to firmly go in front. Emerson forced the Valiants to work, using a late four-point run to cut Manhattanville's lead to 23-20. The Vals did not break, scoring two of the final three points from kills by Ruiz and Andriola to earn the 25-21 opening set win.
After hitting just .079 in the opener, the Lions recorded 29 kills to six errors across the next two sets, winning 25-16 and 25-19 to go ahead 2-1 entering the fourth. While Emerson's attack cooled down in set four with a .167 hitting percentage, the Valiants went negative, committing 12 errors to nine kills. Manhattanville was unable to keep pace with the Lions, falling 16-25 in the frame to suffer the first loss of the young season.
Up Next
The Valiants play the first of seven-straight matches in New Jersey on Thursday, heading to William Paterson for a 7 p.m. matchup.
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