MADISON, N.J. - The Manhattanville University women's volleyball team finished their fifth and final trip to New Jersey this evening. The Valiants competed and won a five-set match against Hunter College but fell to Drew University.
Match One Recap: Manhattanville 3, Hunter 2 (21-25, 26-24, 19-25, 25-17, 15-12)
The Valiants began their final trip to New Jersey pushing a five-setter matchup against the Hawks of Hunter College. The last meeting between the two also entailed a five met match except Hunter took the win September 16th of last year. This brings Manhattanville to a 4-5 overall record.
The Valiant attack was aviated by Ayla Ruiz (Honolulu, Hawaii/St. Andrew's Schools) and Loren Hernandez (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico/American Military Academy) with a combined 39 kills. Ruiz totaled for 21 with Hernandez following shortly behind with 18. This marks Ruiz' fifth game this year in double digits. Samantha Andriola (Garden City South, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy) led the Valiants with 35 assists bringing her further into the triple digits this season with 142 so far.
Manhattanville held their own defensively as four team members found themselves in the double digits for digs. Among the leaders were Andriola with 19, Ruiz with 18, Hernandez with 17 and leading the squad was senior Grace Ballagas (Carolina, Puerto Rico/Robinson School) with 21. Adding to the defensive effort was Kayla Jennings (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Lakeland) and Alana Rivera (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico/Colegio Marista de Guaynabo) with five apiece.
The Hawks opened up the match with a .214 attacking percentage against the Valiants .138. The effective attack effort was led by Amina Moummad with five kills and Izabella Williams with six for Hunter. Ruiz was in pursuit with five of her own to start the match. The points bounced back and forth with only four points being the largest lead of the first set at 24-20 and 25-21 to close out the set. The second set had larger leads at 10-16 and 8-14 as Manhattanville took charge of the offensive end putting each at squad at one apiece. Both teams had a significant drop off in attack percentage as Hunter had .022 and the Valiants led the effort with .039 to end the set 26-24.
The Hawks took set three 25-19 with the strongest attacking percentage of the match both ways with .417. The Valiants held up their defensive end with Ballagas, Andriola and Ruiz having four digs apiece. Hunter outscored the Valiants on the kills 17-16 to put the lead to 2-1, winning the third set. With the match on the line, Manhattanville demonstrated an impenetrable fourth set to lead to a fifth. Hernandez led the set with five kills while graduate student Sofia Morales (Tolland, Conn./Tolland) had four kills. Completing this set 25-17 as the largest lead of the afternoon forced a fifth and final set.
Manhattanville led the entire fifth set after being tied 1-1 at the start. The Valiants survived the interminable match winning 15-12 to close out. Hernandez finished as the leading attacker for the set with four as Andriola added eight more assists to her 35 total in game one. The tri-match action is still underway as game two is against Drew university.
Match Two Recap: Manhattanville 3, Drew 2
The last time these two met was September 10, 2022, as Manhattanville lost in three sets. With the Valiants second match of the day going back-to-back five set matches, Drew University came out on top. With this match going in the loss column, Manhattanville now stands at 4-6 overall.
Hernandez led the Valiants this time around with 20 kills. Shortly behind were teammates Ruiz and Meghan Wildes (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) with 16 and 15 kills. Also adding to the offensive post were the other two middle blockers Morales with six and Emily Brown (Kaneohe, Hawaii/Damien Memorial) with five. Andriola accounted for 48 more assists to her name to help the Valiants push five sets.
Both teams were neck-and-neck statistically as Drew hit .192 and Manhattanville hit .198. While the hitting percentages were very close the Valiants accounted for 64 total kills while the Rangers accounted for 49. Manhattanville also had 13 service aces as Drew had 14. Of those thirteen, five came from Hernandez.
The Valiants scored first for the match in set one with a kill from Wildes. Playing tag throughout, the largest lead of the set was at 14-9 Manhattanville. The Rangers were able to tie it up at 15 before bouncing back and forth with points to stretch it to 27-25 for the set.
The Valiants took charge in the second set to win 25-19. The offensive push was aided by a combined 14 kills for the team and .257 hitting percentage. With another close set, the Rangers came back to win the third set 25-23. With seven hitting errors for Manhattanville compared to the Rangers' four, Drew weathered through with an overall score of two sets to one.
No stranger to adversity, Manhattanville came back with the strongest lead of the day. Winning set four 25-15 with their highest hitting percentage of the day at .259, the Valiants leveled the match at two sets apiece. For the fifth and final set, Manhattanville and Drew had three ties on the fight to 15. The third tie was at 14, meaning both teams had to push beyond just 15 points to win by two for the match. The Rangers ended the match with two kills, one from Abigail Pereira and one from Emily Shirk.
Up Next
The Valiants take on Yeshiva University next Thursday at 7:00pm.
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