The Marist women’s volleyball team suffered their second straight loss on Tuesday night against the Albany Great Danes. After losing the first two sets by a score of 25-20 and 25-18, the Red Foxes bounced back with an excellent third set. Marist and Albany played a very close fourth set, but the Great Danes managed to pull away in the end.
In the first set, Marist trailed by as much as seven, but a 9-3 run by the Red Foxes got themselves within striking distance. With the score at 21-19 in favor of Albany, the away team scored four of the next five points to win the set.
It was more of the same for the Red Foxes in the second set, as they were unable to get off to a quick start. Albany took an early 7-3 lead as Marist searched for a way back into the set. A strong showing in the middle of the set got the Red Foxes within one point as the score stood at 15-14. Following a media timeout, the Great Danes took the next three points, propelling them to a 25-18 victory in the second.
Head coach Sean Bryon talked about his team getting off to a slow start in the first two sets and how it gave Albany the advantage. “What that does is that it let’s your servers just go back and play with house-money,” Bryon said.
With the team down two sets to none, the Red Foxes got on the board in the third set. Marist took the set by a score of 25-19, creating 12 kills and three blocks to keep themselves alive in the match. “She’s a super-athletic kid who can really jump out of the gym,” Bryon said.
For the early portions of the fourth, Marist and Albany went blow-for-blow with each other. The Red Foxes finally found the lead following a kill from Sasha Van Der Merwe that put them up 12-11. As Marist began to feel they had a chance to put some distance between themselves and Albany, the Great Danes began to force a handful of attacking errors from the home team. Albany took advantage of some mistakes, finishing the match off with a 25-17 victory in the fourth and final set.
Outside hitter Van Der Merwe had a very solid match against the Great Danes. The sophomore from Guelph, Canada had a team-high 12 kills, 13.5 points along with contributing two assists. McKinley Fox had a very impactful match as well. The setter from Santa Clara, California had a team-high 29 assists as well as 19 digs and three blocks.
Marist returns to play on September 3rd at 7 p.m., when they face the Harvard Crimson at the Malkin Athletic Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Edited by Connor Kurpat
Photo Credit: Marist Athletics