POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – The Marist volleyball team defeated the Saint Peter's Peacocks in four sets on Sunday afternoon. After dropping the opening set, the Red Foxes bounced back to take the next three to secure the 3-1 victory.
With the win, the Red Foxes improve to 10-12 on the season, and 8-4 in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play. Meanwhile, the Peacocks fall to 3-21 overall and 1-11 in the MAAC.
- The Red Foxes opened the match on fire, taking 10 of the first 12 points in order to get out to a 10-2 lead. Saint Peter's slowly chipped away at the lead, and brought the Red Foxes lead down to 19-14. The Peacocks would go on 9-0 run to take the lead, and the Red Foxes couldn't recover. Gabby Murray led the Red Fox attack with seven kills, but it wasn't enough as Saint Peter's won the set 25-23.
- The Peacocks and Red Foxes traded points early in set two. Down 10-9, Marist would go on a 4-0 run to take a 13-10 lead. However, Saint Peter's battled back again and would tie the match at 21. This time, the Red Foxes bent but did not break, as they took the next two points, which forced a Peacock timeout. Marist closed out the set with a score of 25-23, and evened up the match at 1-1.
- The teams once again traded points to start the set, leading to ties at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Marist would then go on a 4-0 run, highlighted by a monster kill from Skylar Harrison, to take a 10-6 lead. After an 8-2 run, including back-to-back sharp service aces from Courtney Kasperski, Marist extended its lead to 18-8. With Marist leading 21-9, Saint Peter's would go on a 4-0 run, prompting a Marist timeout. Again, the Red Foxes were able to thwart the Peacocks' late comeback attempt, and Marist won the set 25-15.
- After two kills from Nikki DeSerpa and Maddy Waumans sparked the Red Fox offense in the early going, they were able to take an early 12-7 advantage. That lead slowly grew, as the Peacocks could not seem to find an answer to Marist's high-powered offense in the fourth set. A kill from Harrison clinched a 25-16 set victory, and a 3-1 match win.
- Murray led the way for the Red Foxes with a match-leading 16 kills. Se also added five total blocks, two digs, and a service ace.
- Megan Fergus and DeSerpa also both reached double-digit kills with 13 and 11, respectively.
- Sophia Theriot had a match-high 26 digs, and added seven assists. McKinley Fox double-doubled with a match-high 41 assists and 15 digs.
- Alanis Alvarado led Saint Peter's offense with 15 kills, and she also secured 21 digs.
- Marist outhit the Peacocks, .204-.113
- Murray's 16 kills were a new career-high for the freshman middle blocker.
- Harrison totaled nine kills on the day, which were good for a season-high. It was her highest career total since November 11, 2018 at Manhattan.
- Kasperski's 14 digs were a season-high, and the second highest total of her career. She tallied 17 digs on September 16, 2018 vs Niagara.
The Red Foxes have a one-match slate scheduled for next week. Marist will travel to take on Siena on Friday, November 1 at 7 p.m. They will have the rest of the weekend off.
