Bard Challenges RIT and Fredonia at Tri-Match

By Noah Poll

The Bard College women’s volleyball team earned one set in their away tri-match on Saturday against RIT 0-3 and Fredonia 1-3.

The total stats were as follows: Isis Pribble had 17 kills, 13 digs, eight aces, and four assists. Fernanda Julian contributed 32 assists, 10 digs, and four aces. Penelope Joosten Lingo racked up 34 digs, four aces, two assists, and a kill. Xenia Vassou collected 15 kills, six blocks, and two digs. Paola De La Cruz posted 16 assists along with two kills, two digs, and a block.

Ava Rhinehart had 16 digs, eight kills, and two aces. Gia Gomez was in an attacking role, with six kills and two digs. Adrianna Howell tallied 17 digs, two aces, and an assist. Kylah Demers picked up three kills and a block. Nala Roman contributed eight kills, a block, and a dig. Alex Beer chipped in a kill, an assist, and a dig in the RIT match.

The Raptors host Mount St. Mary on Tuesday at 7 p.m. for their Morgan’s Message match.

Bard 0, RIT 3
Bard was competitive in the first set, as it was decided by just three points. RIT was ahead 4-2 when the Raptors scored five straight points to take a 7-4 lead. The Tigers responded with a 5-0 run of their own to make it 9-7. The next five went to Bard behind a stellar serving performance from Pribble with three aces. The Raptors looked to have control after a 6-1 run that made it 18-12. However, RIT won eight of the next nine points to take a 20-19 advantage. Bard rebounded with back-to-back kills from Pribble, but the final four points went to RIT.

The Raptors had seven aces to the Tigers’ two.

RIT had a better grip on the second set, leading 9-3 right away. Bard reduced the lead to four at 11-7, but RIT won four straight to regain the separation. The Raptors won four straight – two from Pribble kills, one from a Vassou block, and one from a Joosten Lingo ace. That made it 15-11, and RIT won four of the next five points to go ahead 19-12. Back-to-back points from Bard narrowed the margin to five, but the Tigers won the last six points of the frame.

The Raptors out-aced the Tigers in the third set, 5-3. Bard got out to an 8-4 lead, forcing an RIT timeout. At 8-6, Bard continued to roll, winning four straight to double up the Tigers 12-6. RIT responded with an 11-4 run to take a 17-16 lead. Gomez and Roman hit back-to-back kills to regain the advantage, but RIT took four of the next five points to lead 21-19 and force a timeout. Vassou had a kill out of the timeout, but RIT closed on a 4-1 spurt.

Bard 1, Fredonia 3
Fredonia won the first set with two more kills than Bard and two more aces. At 6-6, the Blue Devils won three straight, but the Raptors tied it up at 11-11 with a 5-2 run. Fredonia’s big run came at 12-12, as it won five straight and eight of the next nine points. Bard cut it to three at 21-18 before the Blue Devils pulled away.

Bard came out with a spectacular second set, hitting 18 kills to just three errors on a 0.441 hitting percentage. The Raptors won the first three points off of kills by three different Raptors. Fredonia went on a 6-2 run to take a 6-5 lead. Bard still was down by one at 9-8 when its balanced offense showcased itself again, with three kills from different players. The Raptors held a tenuous lead at 13-12 when they surged to the finish line with a 12-2 run.

Fredonia rebounded in the third set, hitting 0.276 to Bard’s -0.027. The Blue Devils took an 8-2 lead early on, answered by a 4-0 Raptor run. Fredonia won eight of the next ten points to make it 16-8. Bard rallied back with four straight, but it wasn’t enough.

In the fourth set, Fredonia used an 8-1 start to its advantage. The Blue Devils extended the lead to 10 at 14-4 before Bard cut it down to six at 14-8. Then, the Blue Devils won back-to-back points, only to be outdone by a 12-3 Bard run. That made it 20-19 in favor of Bard, which was the Raptors’ last lead – six of the final seven points went to Fredonia.