MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A Robert Morris volleyball season marked by a massive youth movement is far from over, thanks to another pulse-pounding team effort on a Friday night and another clutch performance by the most decorated member of that rookie class.

RMU, down 2-1 in the match and 8-3 early in the fourth set, got four digs, four total blocks, a personal record-tying six aces and a team-leading 14 kills, including an emphatic match point, from middle blocker Emma Granger, and the cardiac Colonials (14-14, 8-4) rallied to sweep Saint Francis University 3-2 (25-11, 20-25, 16-25, 25-17, 16-14) at the North Athletic Complex.

It is their fifth consecutive conference victory and fifth in as many tries on their temporary home court. Recently, demolition of their longtime venue, the Charles L. Sewall Center, a.k.a. "The Chuck," began to make room for the UPMC Events Center, opening January of 2019.

Robert Morris is now by itself in fourth place in the Northeast Conference, two games ahead of the Red Flash (12-13, 6-6) and just one game behind conference front-runner LIU Brooklyn, which clinched the first of four available NEC Tournament berths.

While their old home was being razed, the Colonials came out like a house on fire, looking hungry as ever for an 18th postseason trip in 19 years. An early, impassioned 11-2 surge set the tone for their runaway first-set triumph, as Granger aced four serves in that stanza alone. Junior outside hitter Taylor Lord, who made a season-high 24 digs, also found unique success from the service rotation, ending the night with a career-best five aces.

The Colonials entered Friday third in Division I with a team average of 1.79 aces per set, and Granger, now with 59 on the year, came in tied for third nationally. The four-time Molten/NEC Rookie of the Week remains the eighth different RMU player in history to record at least six in a single match, and she is now just the third to do it twice.

The response by SFU was a hard offensive counterpunch that left Robert Morris reeling in the second and third sets, and it seemed to seize firm control in the fourth. But Granger and her teammates, as they have done a number of times in the NEC stretch run, rose to the challenge.

Maria Alfano helped RMU retaliate from her own middle blocker spot with five of her seven kills, including set point, and three of her five total blocks in the fourth frame. Outside hitter Mirna Sarjanovic, in her return from injury, made three kills in a row to tie that set, 8-8, ultimately ending with four on the night to go with her 11 digs.

Liz Campbell and Erika Wilt, as well as Avonworth H.S. product Whitney Brown (eight digs over three sets), made key contributions off the bench. Wilt recorded ten digs, and Campbell finished the match with five kills and a pair of blocks, both seeing action during a 9-1 run that sent the Colonials on their way to a decisive fifth set.

In the fifth set, Brown's defense helped turn the tide with RMU trailing 6-4, and Lord's final kill of the night gave it an 8-7 edge at the side switch. What followed were six ties, as the Red Flash stuck right with the Colonials until Granger put one off a body for their second attempt at match point, and her mighty spike gave RMU an emotional--and necessary--win.

Robert Morris concludes its regular season at the NAC next weekend. The first of those two pivotal matches, against Bryant, gets underway next Friday at 7:00 p.m., with the Colonials looking to avenge a straight-set defeat from Oct. 13.

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