Manhattanville 3, Farmingdale State 2 (25-17, 25-20, 20-25, 20-25, 15-13)
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. | The Farmingdale State College women's volleyball team rallied from two sets down to send Thursday night's Skyline Conference match against Manhattanville University to a deciding fifth set, before the visiting Valiants held on for a 3-2 victory.
The host Rams (11-5, 5-1 Skyline) fell for the first time in their last eight matches, but were resilient in battling back from down 2-0 against the defending-champion Valiants (12-8, 6-0) to send the match into a fifth set. In the deciding set, a service ace by sophomore
Doly DeJesus (Geneva, N.Y.) knotted the score at 5-5. Manhattanville took the next two points and never led by more than three the rest of the way. After FSC senior
Mikayla Profeta (West Islip, N.Y.) put down her team-best 14th kill of the match to close the Valiants' edge to 9-8, the two sides combined to post side outs for the remainder of the contest.
Manhattanville took the first two sets by a combined 13 points, and held a 14-10 lead in the third before the serving of Rams freshman outside hitter
Samantha Russo (Bay Shore, N.Y.) sparked an 8-0 run that pushed Farmingdale State in front and helped cut the match score to 2-1.
Profeta's seven points (four kills, three service aces) in the fourth set aided FSC's five-point win to set the stage for the winner-take-all stanza.
Contributions came from a host of Rams players on the evening, including Profeta's 19 points on 14 kills, three aces and three total blocks (one solo). Russo collected a double-double with 11 kills and 28 digs, as did sophomore setter
Sarah Rende (Wantagh, N.Y.) with 37 assists and 19 digs. Career-best efforts came in the form of 30 digs by junior outside hitter
Delaney Keegan (Lake Grove, N.Y.), who became just the seventh Ram in program history to reach that mark in a single match, along with eight total blocks (two solo) by junior
Lauren Offermann (North Babylon, N.Y.). Freshman
Samantha DiBiasi (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) registered six aces at the service line to lead all players, while senior libero
Lana Ventura (Port Washington, N.Y.) passed 29 digs to set a career-high in that category.
The Skyline Conference slate continues next Wednesday (Oct. 22) for Farmingdale State, when it travels to Patchogue, N.Y., for a 7 p.m. first serve at St. Joseph's University-Long Island.
