Women's Volleyball | 10/12/2019 6:53:00 PM
ALFRED, NY – The St. John Fisher College women's volleyball team rallied to take down the Alfred Saxons on the road Saturday afternoon by a score of three sets to two (17-25, 25-22, 20-25, 25-18, 15-13). The win secured a spot in the Empire 8 conference tournament for the Cardinals as they sit in first place in the standings with a record of 5-0 in league play and 16-6 overall. Alfred moves to 6-15 on the year with a 0-4 record in conference.
Junior
Rebecca Hay had an impressive day with a game-high 46 assists and a season-high 18 digs. Sophomore
Alea Steigerwald led Fisher with 16 kills while freshman Lindsey DeBonis contributed a career-high 15 kills with a game-high .387 hitting percentage.
It was a sluggish start for the Cardinals as they fell into an early hole that they could not come out of in the first set. Fisher responded well in the second set though as it got off to a 9-3 advantage with Steigerwald providing four-straight kills. The Saxons would tie it up and take lead later in the frame. The score was tied at 22 when the Cardinals reeled off three points in a row to take the set.
The Cardinals held an 8-4 edge in the third set but Alfred pushed back and kept it close down the stretch for the stanza. It was 20-all when the Saxons went on a 5-0 run to go back up by one set.
Forced to win two sets in a row, Fisher played stellar in the fourth set. A seven-point streak put the Cardinals up 10-5 and they never looked back the rest of the way. The Saxons cut the lead to four at 22-18, however, Fisher followed it up with three points of its own to win the set and forced a deciding fifth.
Fisher started the fifth set off well taking an early 6-3 advantage. Alfred would respond with a six-point run to go up, 9-6. The Cardinals rallied to tie at 11 with freshman Lauren Gilbert earning the kill. It would then be Gilbert's serve and the Dublin, Ohio native hit an ace to make it 12-11, in favor of the visitors. DeBonis won a point that was sandwiched in between two Alfred points to put the score at 13-all. The killer combination of Hay and Steigerwald worked together for a kill to give the Cardinals match point at 14-13. Fisher would take the following point to win the thrilling five-setter.
In total, Fisher had 78 digs, the second-highest this season in a single game. Five different Cardinals were in double-figures for digs with Hay leading the way while DeBonis, Steigerwald and freshman Alexis Mancha each had 14. Sophomore Kara Kingsbury rounded out the group with 10 digs for the match. This was Fisher's first five-set victory this season.
The Cardinals head to New Jersey for four games next weekend. On Friday, Fisher will be at Stevens to face the former E8 foe as well as the Catholic University of America. On Saturday, the Cardinals head to Kean College to take on the host Cougars and Hunter College.