After failing to record a win in their first 13 road games of the season, a change to more familiar scenery did not change the result; Marist lost their first home game to Iona, 3-1.
For the third consecutive match, the Red Foxes (0-14, 0-4 MAAC Conference) won the opening set of action, but could not win two of the ensuing four sets to win the match. This time, the loss came to the Iona Gaels (4-12, 2-2), the same team that eliminated Marist from last year’s MAAC Tournament. This time, the Gaels spoiled the Red Foxes’ long-awaited homecoming with a 3-1 (23-25, 26-24, 25-20, 25-23) victory.
“Just to be here is really nice, staying at home, stay where we practice… we’re a lot more comfortable in our gym,” said freshman outside hitter Taylor Miller.
Once again, the dynamic duo of outside hitters, Miller and sophomore Sara Dasic powered Marist’s offense. In the loss, Miller and Dasic both recorded career highs in kills; Dasic led all players with 20 while Miller followed closely with 18. Graduate student setter Jamison White played a key role in nearly all of Miller and Dasic’s kills, ending the day with 42 assists.
The first set started sloppy, filled with errors from both sides. Marist held a 15-11 advantage at the first media timeout, with nearly half of their points coming on errors from Iona. Neither team got it going offensively; Iona hit in the negatives at a -.050 hitting percentage but Marist did not do much better, only swinging .087.
Marist found more of its footing after the break, back-to-back kills from Miller and senior middle hitter Alyssa White prompted an Iona timeout. The Gaels fought back and with a tied score at 21, Marist took control of the set.
Dasic found the floor with a tool off the block, then sophomore libero CC Potter-Pessoa found the floor with a serve that hit the top of the net and just barely rolled over, falling untouched on Iona’s side to put Marist in the driver’s seat with a 23-21 lead. Iona did not back down, inching within one point, forcing Marist head coach Sean Byron to call a timeout.
Dasic again used the Iona defense to her advantage, putting the ball off the block for another kill, winning the first set for Marist. The sophomore outside hitter led all players with five kills in the first.
Similar to the first set, errors dominated the early going in the second. Of Iona’s first 19 points, 11 came from Marist errors. With Iona leading 20-17, a lengthy delay occurred as the referees attempted to determine whether the Gaels served in the correct rotation.
“I don’t want it to be delayed that long, but 17-20 is a lot different than 19-18,” said Byron. “It’s a two-point swing.”
After nearly 10 minutes of delay, the officials awarded Marist the previous point, cutting the deficit to one point instead of what was previously three. Another rotation mistake halted the game again and took a second Iona point off the board, switching the score from 23-20 to 22-21 after a Marist kill.
The Red Foxes finally cashed in from the unforced Iona errors to tie the score at 23, but a missed serve put Iona at set point.
“After we score a lot, we can’t serve it out of bounds,” said Byron.
After trading points, the Gaels ended the nearly hour-long set with a kill from graduate student middle blocker Jen Soto.
The pace of the game completely flipped in the third set; after the error-riddled play in the first two sets, the Gaels and Red Foxes settled in on offense. Leading 15-11 at the media timeout, 11 of the Red Foxes’ points came from kills.
Iona got themselves right back into the game with freshman setter Jaylyn Simon at the line, who served three aces on an eight-point run to put the Gaels out front. Byron called both of his timeouts during the streak, attempting to halt the momentum. Simon’s tough serves quickly turned a four-point Marist advantage into a four-point Marist deficit. Iona did not let go of the lead, winning the set 25-20.
Marist held an advantage for most of the fourth and final set, but the Gaels did not go away, keeping the score just a few points apart. Consecutive aces from freshman outside hitter Kari Smith knotted the score back up at 18. A timeout from Byron did not stop Smith’s momentum, who served another ace after the break.
With the score even at 23, back-to-back Marist net violations ended the match, the first from Alyssa White and the second from Miller. Though the match ended with two errors, Iona won the set thanks to an effective offensive attack. The Gaels converted their 14 kills at a staggering rate, hitting .345 in the match’s final set.
Though the losing streak has reached 14 games, the young Marist team has positives to take from the hard-fought loss.
“I’m proud of how hard we played; that’s the best we’ve played so far,” said Byron. “Now we can start to make adjustments when we play hard.”
Marist has another chance to earn their first win in front of their home crowd tomorrow when they take on Manhattan at 1 p.m. The Jaspers are also searching for their first conference win, meaning one of the squads will walk out of McCann Arena after finally getting in the MAAC win column.
Edited by Jaylen Rizzo
Photo by Caitlin Bombassei
Graphic by Gavin Hard
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