Marist Red Foxes Claw Back to Down Siena

POUGHKEEPSIE – The Marist volleyball team crawled back and ended its match against Siena on a high note, taking down the Saints 3-1 (25-14, 22-25, 25-15, 25-15) on Oct. 20 in McCann Arena.

Marist is now 5-1 in its last six Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference matches and 8-3 in conference play in 2017. The Red Foxes evened their overall record to 11-11 while Siena fell to 3-19 including 3-8 in MAAC competition.

The Red Foxes took advantage of some ball handling errors to score five of the first six points of the first set. Marist ripped off a 9-2 run highlighted by three kills from junior Lauren Waide that ballooned its lead to 16-6 on its way to gaining a 1-0 edge.

Siena owned momentum to start the second stanza, jumping out to a 10-4 advantage. Marist got within five to force a Saints’ timeout at 20-15. Facing set point the Red Foxes rallied with six straight scores to make it 24-22. A Siena kill by freshman Jessica Eblin ended the final rally and evened the contest however.

Marist got on track in the third set by nailing down the five of the first six points. A stretch of five straight points that included a pair of kills from sophomore Nikki DeSerpa put the Red Foxes in front 17-10. Marist outscored Siena 8-5 from that moment on and took the set.
Down by as many as six point in the final frame, Marist tied the score at 11 but Siena sided out to go back ahead. The Red Foxes had another 6-0 scoring spree in them, as consecutive service aces by freshman Sarah Austin made it 17-12 in Marist’s favor. The final five points of the night came with junior Katie Brierley at the service line as the Red Foxes defeated the Saints for the fifth time in the last three years.

“For us it’s always important that we just stay up on our own energy and know that we have what it takes,” Nikki DeSerpa said. “Putting that confidence in ourselves and our teammates really helped us climb out of that hole when we were down.”

Marist will take on MAAC rival Rider in the fourth contest of its five-match home stand. First serve is slated for 1 p.m. Oct. 28 in McCann Arena.