Editor’s Note: The previous version of this article stated that Marist had clinched a playoff berth with their win tonight. This was incorrect – they will clinch if they win their next game.
Marist volleyball increased their win streak to six games, their largest stretch since 2023, with a 3-1 victory over the Iona Gaels (25-12, 22-25, 25-19, 25-22) in New Rochelle on the heels of another dominant start.
Marist (15-12, 10-4 Metro) won the first set by 13 points and has now won the opening set in each game on the win streak, defeating opponents in the set by nine points on average.
A 6-0 mid-set run allowed first-year head coach Annie DeLoid to dig deep into her bench. 11 Red Foxes played in the set, and 13 entered the overall match. Only six Red Foxes did not enter the match.
The offense once more spread the wealth. Six players accumulated multiple kills in the set, doubling the Gaels’ (11-15, 6-8 Metro) total of three. Marist swung effectively with a match-high .333 hitting percentage in the set, nearly doubling Iona’s .162. The Red Foxes entered play second in the conference in hitting percentage by over 25 percentage points.
Marist served their best in the opening set, tallying four service aces and no service errors. Senior libero Claudia Kasperski added two aces in the set. Sophomore outside hitter Mallory Reck, senior setter Kaitlyn Owens and sophomore setter Caelyn Dumas also added a pair of aces in the match. Senior outside hitter Sara Dasic led the team with three, and the Red Foxes finished with 11.
Though Iona held Reck to .077 hitting, her defense helped Marist accumulate the most digs in a match this season. Reck’s career-high 26 digs accounted for over a quarter of the Red Foxes’ 95.
Iona won a ping-pong-like second set due to their runs. They compiled a 4-0 run twice and another 5-0 run that led to set point. DeLoid burned both timeouts during Gaels’ runs.
Both of Marist’s dominating first-set facets flipped to the Gaels in the second set. The Red Foxes swung less than .100, while Iona hit .213. The Gaels opened the match dominant at the net with eight blocks before Marist’s first. This allowed Iona to rack up 15 kills in the set, including a pair from senior middle blocker Buse Tinaz, who tied her season-high with 10 kills. Sophomore outside hitter Julia Leonardo led the match with 16 kills.
Despite the Red Foxes’ blocking struggles, their middle blockers focalized the offense, accounting for over half of the team’s 54 kills. Junior middle blocker Sarah Bumstead and freshman middle blocker/outside hitter Molly Malone each tallied 12 kills, and Malone led the team with three blocks.
Malone’s third consecutive double-figure kill game helps her case for Metro Conference Rookie of the Year. She swung .524 in the match after entering play with the fourth-best swinging percentage in the conference. Her season has also totaled over two points, nearly two kills and nearly a block per set that has only grown in conference play. Malone also owns three Metro Rookie of the Week honors.
Bumstead and Malone continued a recent trend of sliding out on certain plays towards where an outside hitter would typically play. Beyond creating a different offensive look, it allows the middle blockers to help outside the hitters create blocks near the sidelines, as opposed to only down the middle.
It took Marist nearly 100 points to get their first block of the match, but they closed out the match with six. Their late set closeouts, however, bent in the third and fourth sets, though they did not break.
An 11-point advantage dwindled to a six-point set victory in the third set, and the Red Foxes allowed a 9-2 run after leading 20-12 in the fourth set, forcing DeLoid to use both timeouts during the Gaels’ run. Despite Iona clawing back to a 22-point tie, Marist closed out the victory on three consecutive points and a game-winning block from Bumstead and Dumas.
Marist needs one more win to clinch their first postseason appearance since 2023, which they will look to do on Friday in Buffalo against Niagara at 6 p.m.
Edited by August Lieberman
Photo by Jaylen Rizzo
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