Volleyball rolls ‘other’ Rams, continues streak

Volleyball rolls ‘other’ Rams, continues streak

 

Zach Joachim

Sports Editor


Volleyball (15-2, 2-0) extended its win streak to 12 games — the program’s longest in 32 years — last week after defeating the ‘other’ Rams of Fordham University and the University of Rhode Island.

 

 

Fordham

 

A tightly contested second set highlighted a straight-set sweep for VCU over Fordham University on Sunday to give the Black and Gold their 12th consecutive win.

 

Photo by Elizabeth Humphries

 

VCU came out on top 25-22, 26-24 and 25-16, but Fordham nearly made a match of it in the second set.

 

With the Black and Gold down 21-19, sophomore opposite hitter Gina Tuzzolo came up with a clutch kill off a perfect feed from sophomore setter Dajah Ard. After a service error on the other end to tie things up at 21-21, Fordham subsequently called a timeout with the potentially match-tying set up in the air.

 

Out of the timeout, another kill from Tuzzolo followed by two Fordham service errors and a botched set put the Rams on the doorstep of a 2-0 lead, 25-24.

 

Fordham called another timeout, but the Black and Gold were not deterred. An attack error by Fordham’s Kaitlin Morley sealed the ‘other’ Rams fate — they would never recover from the slew of self-inflicted errors, and VCU dominated the final set. Fordham hit a dismal -.038 and committed eight errors in the third set.

 

Senior outside hitter Alicia Kandler led VCU in kills on Sunday with 10. The Black and Gold spread the wealth, with Tuzzolo chipping in nine kills of her own. Sophomore outside hitter Vicky Giommarini and junior middle blocker Tori Baldwin contributed eight and seven, respectively.

 

Rhode Island

 

The Rams rolled through their Rhode Island counterparts at the Siegel Center on Friday night in straight sets, 25-18, 25-21 and 25-18 en route to their 11th consecutive victory.

 

The key deciding factor in the Black and Gold’s dominance was their blocking prowess in front of the net. URI hit an abysmal .062 on the evening. VCU collected 13.5 blocks, mostly thanks to Baldwin, who finished with eight of her own.

 

Kandler was yet again the star of the affair, collecting a match-high 12 kills on 28 swings without committing an error. Kandler added eight digs and a pair of blocks.

 

Giommarini contributed a well-rounded stat line of her own with 8 kills, 9 digs and 4 blocks.

 

Legendary senior libero Rebekah Strange shored up the back row as always with 14 digs, leaving her just 13 away from becoming the fifth VCU player to ever compile 1,500.

The win over URI began VCU’s conference portion of the season — 13 of their next 14 matches feature A-10 opponents. The Rams will return to action with an unprecedented 13th consecutive victory in mind on the road against A-10 foe Davidson University next Saturday at 6 p.m.  

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