By TARA SLEDJESKI
Staff Writer
Fordham finished its first season under Ullery with a 3-11 conference record. (Photo by Ally White/The Ram)
The Fordham volleyball team will not be playing in the Atlantic 10 Tournament in Washington, D.C. this season after finishing 3-11 and eighth out of nine teams in the conference. Seven straight October losses in conference play ultimately doomed the Rams during head coach Gini Ullery’s first season with the team. The Rams finished the 2013 season 10-20 overall after going 1-1 this past weekend.
The Rams were able to pick up their third conference win on Friday, Nov. 15 at La Salle. After going up 4-3 early in the first set of the game, the Rams were unable to get out in front of La Salle again. La Salle ended up winning the first set, 25-19.
The second set of the game was a closer one between the two teams at the bottom of the A-10 standings. La Salle went ahead 14-11, scoring the biggest lead of the set for either team, up to that point. La Salle maintained its lead and went up 20-16 before the Rams started clawing their way back. Two La Salle errors moved the score to 20-18 before a Fordham error put La Salle up by three once again.
La Salle stayed ahead 22-19 before five straight Fordham points made it a 24-22 game in favor of the Rams. Four of Fordham’s five points came off of kills, with three of them coming from sophomore Brianna O’Neil. La Salle answered by scoring three points to take the lead back, 25-24, but then the Rams scored three points to end the set and win, 27-25. All three of the Rams’ final points came off of kills, with two being from O’Neil again.
The game was tied 1-1 going into the third set; The Rams controlled the set, leading the entire set and winning it 25-20. La Salle kept things close at first, but a four point run that put Fordham up 21-16 propelled the Rams to the win.
Coming off of the win in the third set, the Rams dominated the fourth set, never losing the lead. Fordham jumped out to a 3-0 lead over La Salle, and turned that into an 8-3, then a 14-5 lead. The final score of the set, which gave the Rams the win for the game, was 25-13.
O’Neil led the Rams in kills for the game with 16. Meanwhile, senior Sara Konkel led the team in assists with 39 and Maria Rodenberg led with 18 digs. La Salle finished its 2013 season 0-13 in the A-10 and 1-30 overall. Two of Fordham’s three conference wins in 2013 came against La Salle.
The Rams played their final game of the season on Nov. 15 at Rhode Island. With a 15-15 overall record and a 7-7 record in conference play, Rhode Island did qualify for the A-10 tournament in 2013 and, not surprisingly, beat Fordham in three sets to end the Rams’ season.
After a kill by Lisa Hipp gave the Rams a 1-0 lead in the first set of the game, Rhode Island went on a tear and went up 10-3. Fordham was able to pick up four straight points late in the set, but it was too late, as they were already down 22-10. Rhode Island won the first set 25-15.
The second set was a bit closer at the start, with the Rams and Rhode Island tied at four. Rhode Island took a 9-8 lead before they slowly started pulling away, soon going up 14-10. Once again the Rams put together a string of points late, but it was too late and they fell 25-20 in the second set. In what would be their final set of the season, the Rams fell 25-19 to Rhode Island. Again, things were close early, with the set being tied at 7-7 before Rhode Island began pulling away after going up 9-8.
Carina Thompson led the Rams in kills against Rhode Island with nine while Konkel led with 30 assists. Rodenberg also led the team in digs with 11.
