MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Playing for something bigger than the game, the
Robert Morris volleyball team put on one of its finest displays of the season, on and off the court.
The Colonials (10-17, 4-8), while stomping out Saint Francis University in straight sets (25-21, 25-22, 25-20) at the North Athletic Complex Friday night, raised funds for breast cancer research, bake sales, basket raffles and all, as part of their first "Dig Pink" match since the 2012 season. The Northeast Conference has sponsored the Dig Pink initiative since 2009.
"I know we raised a lot...and I like how everyone pitched in. It was a team effort, for sure," said senior outside hitter
Taylor Lord, who finished with eight kills and ten digs and is one of a number of players whose family has been impacted by cancer.
The same could be said for RMU, which defeated the Red Flash (4-21, 3-9) for the 61st time over 71 all-time meetings in the recorded history of the intra-state NEC rivalry. For the Colonials this marked their first sweep of SFU since Oct. 15, 2016, a three-set result at the Sewall Center.
Four different players got them on the board to begin the match, and
Alyson Londot and
Liz Campbell both made critical block assists to help Robert Morris break free from a 20-20 stalemate in the first set.
When the Red Flash rallied to tie the second at 22, forcing an RMU timeout,
Maria Alfano went upstairs for a mighty kill that put the Colonials ahead to stay. The sophomore middle blocker hit a season-best .600, flirting with her career high (.619) while collecting seven kills altogether.
Emily Devlin and
Whitney Brown came off the bench in time for a 4-0 mini-run that capped the night, with the Pittsburgh-raised Brown setting up the former for match point. Brown led the team with her 16 assists, and rookie
Megan Cannon contributed ten.
"It was exciting because of the fact we haven't done it very much in the past," Lord said of the pomp and pink circumstance surrounding the decisive win. "It's kind of nice for the freshmen coming in to get started doing it, so now they'll maybe want to continue that, even if it's not as sacred to them as it is me. I think everyone was pretty excited."
Sophomore middle blocker
Emma Granger, one of the most proficient servers in program history, brought the excitement to a fever pitch, single-handedly turning the tide in the opening frame with a freakish four straight aces following a kill that cut SFU's lead to 12-10.
"To be honest with you, her just making four serves in a row hasn't necessarily been [happening] this year. When she did that, it really gave us some energy at a critical time, when we were struggling to find any energy on our side," said head coach
Dale Starr. "She played a tremendous match, one of the best all-around matches I've seen her play."
Granger went after Alexis Lambert to make it a one-point game, then victimized Elise Dumouchelle twice. The 2017 NEC Rookie of the Year then put one off 2018 contender Madi Tyus before finally granting the Red Flash some mercy by airmailing a ball over the back line.
"Yeah...I don't know what it was. I'm not really sure," Granger laughed, when asked about her suspension of disbelief from the serve. "It didn't feel like I was hitting the ball how I normally do, so I was a little surprised at some of the results."
Coming off a Week 10 NEC Prime Performer selection, despite being held to three kills by LIU Brooklyn last Saturday, Granger roared to life with 12 against the Red Flash, plus a half-dozen total blocks, on a .409 attack average.
Furthermore, Granger equaled her single-match high with six service aces, the first time she registered that many since Nov. 3, 2017, the last time Saint Francis visited the NAC. She is the first Robert Morris player in the 25-point era to post that many in a single match on three occasions.
She factored into every point during the string of four straight that put RMU in command at the end of the first frame. Later, she made two go-ahead kills in the middle of the second, then another that preceded back-to-back aces, giving the Colonials a 21-18 edge.Â
"I just think we really played well together. If we were lacking in one area, we would pick it up in another," Granger said. "I think we played for each other, and played as a team, which was awesome."
"I'm real proud of the way it came out," Starr said. "At the beginning, we were a little lethargic, and I wasn't sure how tonight was going to go, but the more I learn about these kids, the more I learn that I just kind of have to sit back and let them do their thing."
Defensively, libero
Allie Yurkovich, who, like Lord, is getting ready to close out a highly accomplished collegiate career, did her thing. She paced RMU with 15 digs, as the Colonials held Saint Francis to a .152 team attack average.
Lord's lone service ace put her team up 10-9 in the third, and she would make three straight go-ahead kills at one point, with SFU trying to stay alive.
"We served very well. Emma's always had a high ratio of errors to her aces, but she gets a lot of aces, so it kind of cancels out. That really puts it on everyone else to have her back and make sure we're getting our serves in," said Lord. "I think that was important, that we helped her out a little bit."
Robert Morris rounds out the 2018 regular season with Senior Weekend, beginning next Friday versus NEC rival Fairleigh Dickinson. First serve from the NAC is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET, and admission is free.
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