Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University volleyball team showed great resilience this afternoon, battling back from a couple of deficits to defeat Central Connecticut State University, 3-1, in Northeast Conference (NEC) play from the Charles L. Sewall Center.
Robert Morris (11-15, 9-1 NEC) dropped the first set of the match and trailed by seven points late in the closing frame, but rebounded to earn its second regular-season sweep of Central Connecticut State (8-13, 4-5 NEC) over the past three seasons.
The Colonials received double-doubles from senior
Erica Robb, sophomore
Arden Fisher, and freshman
Brianna Frakes in the victory. The two outside hitters each tallied a team-high 13 kills, with Fisher adding 14 digs to her offensive contribution. Robb collected 10 digs and hit at a .312 clip on the afternoon, while Frakes dished out 30 assists and dug out 10 attack attempts.
Senior outside hitter
Alena Esposito matched her career-high in block assists with five, and set a new career-best in kills with 10.
The two setters, Frakes and
Hannah Hoffman, combined for 50 assists in the victory.
Defensively, senior libero
Melissa Bograd led the way by collecting 28 digs. Middle blockers
Kristin Thompson and
Becky Jay each picked up a solo block and five block assists, as RMU tallied double-digit blocks for the fifth straight match.
Jay continued her march through the record books, moving up to second all-time in total blocks with 439. She is now 21 shy of tying Kristie Tuxford's (1992-95) mark of 460.
The Blue Devils took the first set, 25-20. Thompson collected six of her eight kills in the frame, while Jay helped stop four CCSU attack attempts.
The Colonials rebounded with a convincing 25-15 victory in the second stanza. Jay and Esposito both hit .571 in the set, while Robb collected half of her 10 digs.
Although the third frame was close throughout, RMU never gave up the lead, earning a 25-21 win. The Colonials were helped by a .556 hitting percentage from Robb and 11 attack errors from the Blue Devils.
RMU trailed 22-15 in the fourth set before taking nine of the last 10 points to win the match, 25-23.
The deciding rally started with a Jay kill at 22-16, then the senior middle blocker and classmate
Sydney Sizemore combined for a block to give the Colonials another point.
Robb and Sizemore followed that up with back-to-back kills, forcing a CCSU timeout as its lead shrunk to 22-19. The Blue Devils picked up a point out of the break, but another Robb kill plus errors on an attack and a set cut it to a single tally.
CCSU called its second timeout of the frame after Fisher followed the ball handling error with a kill to tie it up. The break didn't help the Blue Devils this time around, as Robb served up an ace before Fisher completed the comeback with a kill from Bograd.
Robert Morris is back in action tomorrow afternoon against Bryant. Opening serve between the Colonials and Bulldogs is set for 1:00 p.m. from the Charles L. Sewall Center.
