Emma Francesconi takes a swing for the Lady Jaspers. ANDREW MANNION/ THE QUADRANGLE
Andrew Mannion, Sports Editor
Manhattan University’s women’s volleyball team faced off against the University of Rhode Island (URI) Rams on Saturday afternoon.
The first set was all Jaspers to start, taking a 4-1 lead off of the kill from Fiona VanDyke. This three point lead was the closest the set would be for the rest of the game. With the teams taking turns winning points, the score came to 16-13. The Lady Jaspers then scored four unanswered points with Emilia Kuzinar serving the ball. After the score landed at 20-13, Manhattan closed out to take the first set, 25-18.
The second set was incredibly close through the first 18 points. With URI up 2-1 to start the set, Manhattan worked to string together points to bring their lead to 9-5. URI also strung together multiple points, and crawled back to take their first lead of the game when Ryleigh Powers aced her serve, bringing the score to a 15-14 Rams lead.
The Jaspers close to the second set was defining for their game. With URI holding a 17-16 lead, the Jaspers dominated the back end. They won nine of the next 10 sets, including the final seven points. With Theresa Garza delivering the serve, she saw two service aces and set up two more attack errors on the Rams. Manhattan once again won the set 25-18.
The final game was the most dominant from MU. With URI up 5-4 early, the Jaspers delivered four unanswered points, and won 11 of the next 13 points, giving them a 15-7 lead over the Rams. With a slight back and forth over Manhattan’s final points of the game, they finally closed out the third set with a win of 25-15, sweeping the Rams in three straight sets.
One of the most noticeable features of the Jaspers’ crushing win was the energy they played with. It was rare to find a play without the team clapping with smiles and motivating each other. The Jaspers’ leader in kills for the game, Emma Francesconi, spoke on how the energy the team played with was a huge factor in the result of the game.
“We were always saying ‘We got this. Let’s go. Keep it up and reset,” Francesconi said. “We’re working on [motivating each other], and you see the change in that. We are really proud of that today.”
Before the electrifying celebrations on the court after point wins for MU, attendees saw a game of sound and confident play. There were few errors made throughout the game, which made it all the more difficult on Rhode Island. The Jaspers outside hitter, VanDyke, spoke on how they played well throughout.
“We did the simple, basic things all game,” VanDyke said. “I think we executed on everything we needed to… It was really good.”
Being able to celebrate the monster win for the next six days, Manhattan will also be looking forward to their first game of MAAC play. With a game against Niagara, the Jaspers will begin conference competition next Friday. Head Coach Mauro Miletic spoke on how the Jaspers will need to play to continue this success against the MAAC.
“Definitely keep the energy,” Miletic said. “The serve/receive today, as I told our players, it was fantastic. Once you have a serve, receive a good serve, receive, then everything else is easy. Just keep working on the service team, making it better. One thing that we need to work on more is our block defense. Once you fix the block, the defense is going to get better because they can work around it.”
The Jaspers will look to build off this win in Niagara Falls next Friday, Sept. 26, as the season continues.