SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – Suffolk fought off a pair of Skidmore match points to tie the fifth set at 14, but the Thoroughbred women's volleyball team came back with two of their own to clinch the set and a 3-2 (16-25, 25-23, 25-21, 19-25, 16-14) win to open the Russell Sage-Union Crosstown Challenge on Friday night.
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- The epic fifth set featured nine ties and three lead changes. Suffolk led for most of the first part of the deciding set and was ahead 9-8 before the Thoroughbreds rolled off four out of five to take a 12-10 lead. Madison Manning had two kills during the spurt.
- The teams traded the next four points, leading to Skidmore being a point away, when Emily Norgrove put down a kill and a Skidmore set error tied it at 14.
- Natalie Pedersen beat the block for her 10th kill of the match to get Skidmore once again a point away. Phoebe Yang's serve got the Rams' offense off balance, leading to an attempted free ball sailing long and out of bounds.
- The win lifts Skidmore to 2-7. Suffolk is 6-2 after entering the day unbeaten.
- Manning finished with a team high 15 kills with 15 digs and a block.
- Rudi Reyes had 13 kills and a team high .290 swing percentage. She added two assists and five digs.
- Pedersen added four digs and a solo block to her 10 kills.
- Jazlin Chen finished with three blocks, two solo, with five kills.
- Catriona Hoelperl connected for 28 assists and 17 digs. Athena Braverman also had 17 assists with five assists.
- McKenna Keowen led Suffolk with 17 kills and 13 digs with four aces.
- Suffolk had 11 aces to Skidmore's five. As a team, the Rams hit .173 while the Thoroughbreds were .157.
- Skidmore made it close in the middle of the first, but Suffolk ran away with a 7-2 set-ending run.
- The Thoroughbreds raced to a comfortable lead in the second and withstood a Ram charge to hold on and even it up.
- Skidmore scored five unanswered in the third set, four of them on Suffolk errors, to take a 21-15 lead on the way to a 2-1 set lead.
- Suffolk led big to start the fourth. Skidmore closed it to two, 18-16, before Suffolk won the race to 20 and kept the Thoroughbreds at bay to force the fifth.
UP NEXT
- Skidmore will play a pair of SUNYAC foes tomorrow in New Paltz (11 a.m.) and Oneonta (1 p.m.) to close out the tournament at Union.
