FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Sacred Heart sent the Red Foxes back to Poughkeepsie with a sour taste in their mouths, stunning Marist in four frustrating sets.
In its push for the MAAC Tournament, Marist needed a win over Sacred Heart, who entered as the ninth-place team in the conference. On the heels of a loss to No. 1 Fairfield on Friday night, the Red Foxes failed to salvage the weekend trip to Connecticut.
“We talked about it before: I said ‘This is an important game, because Sacred Heart’s 1-5 and we were at fifth [place] at 4-2,’” said head coach Sean Byron. “And now being 4-3, we’re now in that five, six, seven, eight range.”
With only six teams making the MAAC Tournament in mid-November, the Red Foxes currently sit on the fringe. Marist is now in a three-way tie for fifth place with Canisius and Siena. Depending on how the tiebreaker shakes out, if the season ended today, Marist would be on the outside looking in at the playoffs.
Besides its outside hitters, Marist’s offense never got it going. Junior outside hitter Sara Dasic and freshman outside hitter Mallory Reck carried the brunt of Marist’s workload; Dasic had 20 kills while Reck had 16, finishing the night with a staggering 52 attack attempts.
They accounted for 36 of Marist’s 48 kills; the Red Foxes’ right-side and middle hitters totaled more attack errors (16) than kills (12), forcing the setters to lean on Dasic and Reck.
“I think Sara and Mallory are doing a good job. It’s a heavy lift that they have to take every swing,” said Byron. “But we have nothing else.”
Byron added a wrinkle to his usual 6-2 offensive scheme on Saturday night. Instead of subbing freshman setter Caelyn Dumas out for a right-side hitter upon rotating into the front row, he elected to let the left-handing swinger play front row while graduate student setter Claire Lewis set from the back row.
Dumas did not get many chances to swing in the first set, as the majority of Marist’s offense came from the outside hitter position. Reck scored two early kills, and Dasic found the floor on three consecutive points to tie the score at 10.
There, Marist fully hit its stride offensively, still leaning on its outside hitters. Of Marist’s 12 first-set kills, 10 came from Dasic and Reck, each landing five of their nine attempts – Reck clinched the set victory by overpowering the Pioneers’ double-block, pinning the ball between their hands and the net.
Marist set the tone with a strong presence at the net. Sacred Heart swung for an effective .200 hitting percentage, but the Red Foxes stuffed three attacks; the Pioneers also committed eight attack errors as they attempted to swing around Marist’s intimidating block.
Sacred Heart settled in offensively in the second set, but the roles reversed defensively. Suddenly, Marist could not get the ball past the Pioneers’ block; they recorded six in the set alone, with graduate student middle blocker Cristina Montanez contributing to four of them.
Freshman outside hitter Ryleigh Short led a well-balanced Sacred Heart offense, scoring three kills as the Pioneers hit .296 as a team, and tied the match at a set apiece after their 25-19 win. Marist also gave away five free points at the line, as the Red Foxes missed five serves in the set.
The Red Foxes got 13 of their 23 points in the third set on just two separate scoring streaks. Sophomore right-side hitter Taylor Miller kick-started the first stretch after entering for Dumas’ front row rotations, making a clean block touch to send the Pioneers scrambling, tying the set at four.
Reck got a kill on the next point, sophomore middle blocker Sarah Bumstead then recorded a block, Lewis served an ace and back-to-back Reck kills capped a 7-0 run, giving Marist a 9-4 advantage.
Marist gifted the Pioneers a 5-0 run, committing four errors to help Sacred Heart tie the score at nine. The Red Foxes countered with a 6-0 run, but again failed to put away the Pioneers.
Trailing 18-14, Sacred Heart got all its hitters involved. Seven different players tallied a kill, as the Pioneers reached set point first on a soft push by sophomore setter/defensive specialist Brielle Laferriere that painted Marist’s end line.
Junior setter Ava Roodbol ended the set moments later, flipping a set over her head and the net; the Red Foxes watched it land directly on the sideline, giving Sacred Heart a crucial 2-1 lead.
With their backs against the wall, the Red Foxes came out flat to start the fourth set, making four errors and getting aced by freshman outside hitter Abbie Hagedorn – in the blink of an eye, they trailed 9-4.
Marist chipped away to keep itself in it, but every time it got within striking distance, Sacred Heart answered with a few consecutive points to stifle the Red Foxes’ comeback bids.
That changed at 17-16; Reck put up a thunderous block on junior outside hitter Lauren Hubert to knot the score at 17. How did the Pioneers answer with the set tied? A 5-0 run to bury the Red Foxes.
Marist won four of the following five points, but it was too little too late. Junior middle blocker Emily Sawyer nailed a kill just inside Marist’s end line, winning the set 25-22 and the match 3-1.
The Red Foxes are not back in action until Friday, offering some much-needed time off. Marist went 5-3 in a stretch of eight matches in 15 days, but has an important weekend ahead of it. Marist hosts Merrimack, a team just one game behind them, on Friday at 7 p.m.
Edited by Jaylen Rizzo
Photo by Marist Athletics
Graphic by Jaylen Rizzo
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