Moon Township, Pa. – The RMU volleyball team concluded play in the George Mason Invitational Saturday in Fairfax, Va., dropping a five-set match to Marist at the Recreation Athletic Complex. The Colonials finished with a 2-1 record during the tournament and on the 2021 campaign are 6-3 (.667) overall.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
RMU grabbed the first set, 25-17, behind four kills and a .273 attack percentage from sophomore
Abby Ryan before Marist (5-5) rebounded to earn a 27-25 victory in set two. A tightly contested set with neither squad owning a lead bigger than three points, RMU tied it, 25-25, on a kill from graduate student
Alyson Londot. Vanessa Zolg followed with a kill to push Marist in front, and the Red Foxes tied the match, 1-1, on an attack error from Ryan. The two teams then traded 25-18 victories in sets three and four, respectively, setting up RMU's second match to go the distance at the George Mason Invitational.
THE DECIDING SET
RMU used both of its timeouts in the fifth and final set in a three-point span, the second of which came after a kill from Madelyn Waumans gave Marist a 10-5 advantage. Senior
Alyssa Hudak produced a kill to pull the Colonials to within 10-6, but the Red Foxes pulled away, with a kill from Waumans giving Marist a 13-7 lead en route to the victory. Ryan paced the Colonials by notching her second consecutive double-double and third of the fall season with 15 kills and a career-high 21 digs. RMU notched 51 kills against the Red Foxes but also posted an attack percentage of .149, a season low.
BLOCK PARTY
The Colonials finished with a season-high 34 block assists Saturday against Marist and in three matches of the 2021 George Mason Invitational racked up nine solo stuffs and 70 block assists for an average of 3.14 blocks per set. Graduate student
Emma Granger tallied two solo and 10 block assists against the Red Foxes, while senior
Emily Devlin recorded a career-high 12 block assists. Granger pushed her career total in blocks to 428 with her performance at the George Mason Invitational, moving into fourth place all-time in the category. She also now ranks second in program history in blocks assists (369), trailing only Becky Jay (2011-14), who owns the RMU career record with 397.
FIVE AGAINST ONE
RMU's five-set match against the Red Foxes Saturday was its fourth of the 2021 season to go the distance. It also marked the first loss of the season for the Colonials in five sets. Londot contributed 11 kills and four digs in the setback, marking the fourth time this season she has eclipsed the double-digit plateau for kills. In addition to the 21 digs for Ryan, junior
Allena Carmody finished with 15 and sophomore
Annie Monaco recorded 11.
UP NEXT
RMU concludes the non-conference portion of its 2021 fall campaign by taking part in the Mountaineer Invitational Thursday, Sept. 16, and Friday, Sept. 17. The Colonials open the tournament Thursday with a 10:00 a.m. match against UMBC in Morgantown, W. Va.
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