The Albertus Magnus College women's volleyball team earned a 3-0 victory over visiting Bay Path University on Thursday evening.
The Falcons jumped out to an early game one lead when senior setter Leanna Velez (Waterbury, Conn.) set the pace with five straight service points to give Albertus an early 5-1 lead. Sophomore Caitlin Prete (Milford, Conn.) continued the Falcons' strong service stretching the lead to 13-2 after seven straight service points. Bay Path would make a run of their own as freshman middle hitter Lauren Vallee (Bristol, Conn.) countered with five straight service points to cut the Albertus lead to 13-7. The Falcons would regain their composure and go on for the eventual 25-20 win.
Game two would feature another 4-0 run to start the match from Velez which was quickly matched by Bay Path freshman Justine Maldonado (Manchester, Conn.) to tie the game 4-4. Later in the match with Albertus trailing 16-11, freshman middle hitter Anna Gomez (New Haven, Conn.) rattled off eight straight service points to give the Falcons a 19-16 edge. Bay Path retook the lead 20-19 before junior libero Alyssa Puccilli (Milford, Conn.) had four straight service points to give Albertus the 24-20 edge. A key to the late run occured when Prete killed a pass from Velez to make the score 21-20. The Falcons would take the second game by a score of 25-21.
Sophomore Amy Seliga (East Haven, Conn.) had seven of her nine kills in the third game as Prete and Velez had seven and four service points respectively to key the Falcon attack. Albertus would go on to win the third game 25-20 following a key run of four service points from Prete making the score 23-17. Junior Taylor DePalma (East Haven, CT) added a key kill and Seliga a solo block in the rally as the Falcons pulled away for the victory. Prete would finish the day with a team high 11 kills while Seliga and Gomez finished with nine and eight kills respectively. Velez added 23 assists in the match.
Albertus improves to 2-3 on the season while Bay Path drops to 1-4. The Falcons return to action in Purchase, N.Y. on Saturday and Sunday when they will be participating in the Purchase Invitational Volleyball Tournament.
