October 20, 2006 - Manhattan 3 Rider 2
October 20, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Volleyball
Manhattan College 3, Rider University 2
RIVERDALE, N.Y.--If you are in New York, you might as well have a marathon.
The Broncs lost a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference match at Manhattan Friday night that took over two hours to complete.
Rider fell to the Lady Jaspers with Manhattan winning in five games 30-18, 30-20, 23-30, 29-31, 15-13.
For the Broncs, sophomore Lacey Johnson (Aurora, Colo./Grandview) compiled her fifth ‘double-double’ in a row with 24 digs and 16 kills with junior Katrina Stehle (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield) also adding a ‘double-double’ with 16 digs and 11 kills.
“I don’t think we came out that slow as much as Manhattan came out on fire,” said head coach Emily Ahlquist. “In the first two games, they could do nothing wrong and we could do nothing right.”
Rider (7-13, 5-6 MAAC) fell behind two games to none before storming back to win games three and four with the fourth game featuring 12 ties. Down 10-5 in the fifth and deciding game, the Broncs rallied to tie the score at 13 before falling.
“In the final three games, we picked up our energy,” said Ahlquist. “We concentrated on our ball control and utilized all of our shots. We went back to playing our type of game.”
Bronc rookie JoAnna Winter (Hamburg, Minn./Mayer Lutheran) had 26 assists and 18 digs with fellow freshman Amy Jeary (Depew, N.Y./St. Mary’s) adding 27 digs.
Senior Megan Smith (Webster, N.Y./Webster) had 14 kills and now has 973 kills in her career. Smith added eight digs and five blocks in the match.
“It was important to battle back and gain momentum back,” Ahlquist added. “We look to compete each match and the last two matches went five games so we are competing, we just have to starting winning some of those matches. We’re still young and we are still learning and that will come. The more opportunities to play these types of matches (against Canisius and Manhattan), the better we are going to be as we head toward the playoffs.”
After losing twice to Manhattan in five games during the 2005 season, the Broncs defeated the Lady Jaspers in four games on September 15 at Rider. In that game Johnson posted a 21 dig, 12 kill effort.
“Rider and Manhattan are two evenly matched teams,” Ahlquist added. “Every point is contested which makes for a long match.”
Rider stays in New York, traveling to Loudonville to face Siena on Saturday afternoon for a MAAC match at 4:00pm.
Here’s hoping the match lasts a New York minute.
-RU-
