Women's Volleyball | 9/10/2021 11:55:00 PM
POTSDAM, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College women's volleyball squad settled for a 1-1 split in the first round of the North Country Invitational at Alumni Gymnasium on the campus of Clarkson University. The Cardinals, who are receiving votes in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, moved to 3-3 on the year as they downed the Plattsburgh State Cardinals (3-2) in straight sets (25-23, 25-15, 25-20) and took a set in a hard-fought battle with the Clarkson Golden Knights (4-3) in a 1-3 loss (30-28, 20-25, 22-25, 20-25).
FISHER 3, PLATTSBURGH STATE, 0
In the matchup of the Cardinals, Fisher and Plattsburgh State played a tough first set as the Western New York birds coming out on top by just two points. After going point-for-point for the first dozen points, Fisher broke the scoring open with three straight points on a
Katie Leaty service ace sandwiched by kills from
Gracie Jacob and
Sydney French, bringing the score to 16-12. Although Plattsburgh came back to knot the score at 23-all, French drove home a Leaty helper and then teamed up with
Alea Steigerwald to block their opponent's chance of extending the frame.
The second set brought more of the same back-and-forth action until a Steigerwald point fueled a five-point Fisher run with French at the service line, in which an
Olivia Nellis score forced Plattsburgh into a timeout to regroup with the score at 13-8. The favorable Cardinals took note of the French Effect, as the next time she stepped to the line, she tallied three aces in a six-point run that brought Fisher to a 25-15 set victory.
After Fisher went up 1-0 in the final set, they never turned back. A kill and three service aces from Jacob quickly turned into a six-point advantage from which Plattsburgh would never recover, as the Rochester-based Cardinals took the straight-sets win to head into its most challenging matchup of the weekend.
Overall, Fisher hit just over 64% in the contest, while French, Steigerwald and
Lindsey DeBonis led on the scoring front. DeBonis grabbed a team-high 11 kills in the match, while Steigerwald had nine kills and five blocks, and French tallied six kills, four service aces, and three blocks. Leaty (17) and
Emily Brochey (15) did the bulk of the passing on the night as the pair tallied 32 total assists.
CLARKSON 3, FISHER 1
The Cardinals carried their momentum from game one directly into this one as they came out with three straight points to start the game, pushing their early lead to as many as five points with points from Steigerwald and DeBonis. The Golden Knights battled back to even up the score 13-13, where the teams exchanged the lead for the rest of the set. Although Clarkson took a 23-22 lead,
Kara Balmer came up big in the middle blocker position as she stuffed the Golden Knight attack, evening the score and allowing DeBonis to hammer home a score to take a point lead. Fisher briefly lost the lead at 26-27, but quickly regained it following a
Delayne Young kill, which powered up the French Effect once more to score three straight Cardinals points, winning the frame 30-28.
In the following three sets, the Cardinals fell to early deficits, but each time came back to pressure Clarkson, coming back from as many as eight points, to finish within five points of each set.
DeBonis, Steigerwald, Young, and Leaty each tallied double-doubles in the match. DeBonis led the way again with 15 kills and 15 digs, while Steigerwald tallied 12 and 20, and Young combined for 11 kills and 16 digs. Leaty saw her double digits come with 32 assists and 16 digs.
Fisher gets back to work tomorrow, Saturday, September 11 in their final game of the North Country Invite when they battle with the SUNY Canton Kangaroos at high noon.
