With a 3-0 (25-14, 25-14, 25-14) victory over Mass Maritime, the Albertus Magnus College women's volleyball team improved to 5-5 on the year marking the most wins for the program since winning five matches in both the 2002 and 2003 seasons.
The Falcons took the first set of the match 25-14 behind the strong play of captain Krista LaBissoniere (Meriden, Conn.) who served two of her game high nine aces in the first set. The Falcons closed out the set on a 5-0 run capped off by a Nicole Acerra (East Haven, Conn.) kill, assisted by none other than Krista LaBissoniere.
Capitalizing off their strong finish in the first, the Falcons opened up the second set with a 10-4 lead, prompting Mass Maritime to call a timeout. The timeout did little to cool off the Falcons as junior Lily Dy (Torrington, Conn.) served an ace immediately following the timeout to push the Falcon lead to 11-4. Later in the set freshman Alyssa Puccilli (Derby, Conn.) helped give the Falcons a commanding 24-11 lead with five straight service aces. The Falcons took the second set by a score of 25-14, and jumped out to a two sets to none lead in the match.
The third set saw more of the same from the Falcons as they raced out to an early 12-1 lead behind the strong serving of LaBissioniere. Immediately following the Albertus 12-1 run was an 8-2 Mass Maritime run making the score 14-9 in the Falcons' favor. A kill from Lily Dy, her fourth and final of the night, would help put the Mass Maritime run to rest and the Falcons back on track. Sophomore Leanna Velez (Waterbury, Conn.) sealed the record setting victory for the Falcons with a kill, her second of the night.
Freshman Kelsey Pendagast (Shelton, Conn.) and junior Melissa Manning (Milford, Conn.) also played key roles for the Falcons each with four kills in the match. Freshman Jenna Dececchi (West Haven, Conn.) contributed two service aces to the Falcons team total of 22 in the match.
Albertus returns to action on Saturday as the Falcons host a tri-match with Emmanuel College and Mitchell College. The Falcons' first match of the day is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. against the Saints of Emmanuel before they take on Mitchell at 3:00 p.m.
*Written by Dan Kmiechick, Student-Intern for Albertus Magnus Sports Information