Knights Split Final Regular Season Matches

KINGS POINT – The Mount Saint Mary College closed the regular season on Sunday with a 25-9, 25-13, 25-14 sweep of Yeshiva and a 19-25, 25-23, 12-25, 27-29 four set loss to the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Freshman Morgan Burke finished off the Mount’s win with a career-high 12 kills and set a new single season record for total blocks against USMMA.

The Knights cruised past the Maccabees in Sunday’s opener, hitting .267 as a team to go along with 19 service aces. The Mount committed just 10 attack errors in the match and forced Yeshiva into a -.048 attack percentage in the match.

Burke continued her strong freshman campaign against Yeshiva reaching double-figures in kills for the third time in her career. She hit a blistering .667 in 18 attempts and went without an attack error in the contest. She closed a strong all-around match with a service ace, a block and a dig for the Knights.

Burke was the only Mount Saint Mary to reach double-figures in kills, with Nicole Spinelli adding five winners and Emily Mazzurco and Rachel Sabatini each putting away four kills.

Sophomore Kim Gries led all players with 26 assists in the match to go along with a pair of blocks, while Ally Klesin paced the team with eight digs.

Overall in the match, Mount Saint Mary held a 33-11 advantage in kills and a 19-3 edge in service aces. Spinelli led all players in the contest with a career-high nine aces for the Knights.

The Knights closed the regular season with a hard four loss to the Mariners, who sured up the second seed in the conference championship with the win. After dropping the opening frame, the Knights rebounded to hit .389 in the second frame to even things up. The Knights overcame a 22-21 deficit in the second with a 4-1 run keyed by kills from Klesin, Burke and Sabatini.

With the match tied at a set apiece, USMMA secured the third frame after hitting .286 and used a 9-0 run to open a 10-4 lead. The Mariners used a 5-0 spurt later in the set to open a commanding 21-8 advantage on their way to a 2-1 lead.

After falling behind 6-0 in the fourth set, the Mount used a 6-0 run in the middle stages of the frame to pull to within 16-15 on a Sabatini kill. The Mount knotted the score at 18-18 on a Kristen Maddock ace and took their first lead of the set, at 20-19, on a Madelyn Barberan ace.

The Mount would fall behind 22-21, but scored the next three points to earn set point in the fourth following a Spinelli winner. USMMA would rip off the next three points to move in front 25-24 and the two teams would trade the lead two more times before the Mariners got a kill from Dominique Pope and a Mount Saint Mary miscue to finish off the match.

Sabatini led all players in the match with 17 kills and added 13 digs for the Knights, while Spinelli and Klesin each finished with seven winners. Barberan finished off the match with four kills and 10 digs for the Knights.

Burke rounded out the match with seven kills and added four blocks. She has amassed a new single season record of 81 blocks, breaking the previous mark of 80 set by Katie Mayer during the 2006 season. Spinelli added three blocks for the Knights who finished with seven total team blocks in the match.

Maddock handed out better than 40 assists for the third time this season with 41 against USMMA and closed the match with two aces, three blocks and 12 digs. Julimar Figueroa rounded out the contest with 26 digs.

USMMA was led by 15 kills from Pope who added 19 digs and got 13 winners from Nicole Ibinson who added 11 digs. Kyleigh Kappas handed out a match-high 45 assists and Gabby Marionakis led the team with 24 digs.

For the match, USMMA held a slim 49-48 edge in kills, but dominated the service game 18-5 in aces. Mount Saint Mary held the edge in total team blocks 7-4.

With the split, Mount Saint Mary moves to 15-17 overall and 7-4 in conference play.