Box Score
Purchase, NY (Sept. 1, 2011) – Manhanttanville women's volleyball got the better of the annual neighborhood rivalry, defeating visiting Purchase 3-1 in Thursday's season opener.
The Valiants (1-0) overcame a tough first set to take the final three. Manhattanville posted a 22-25, 25-15, 28-26, 25-12 victory in an extremely competitive start for Purchase that it just couldn't sustain a 25-15 loss in the second.
The Panthers (0-1) were paced by Lindsay Froman and Olivia Hintz, both of which shared the team-high in kills – notching seven apiece – and registered 16 and 18 digs, respectively. Returner Lindsay Navagh also had a nice effort, adding eight assists and 13 digs to her credit, while newcomer Jenna Nardi shined in her first Purchase action. Nardi totaled six kills.
After nearly erasing a 12-point deficit in the first set, Manhattanville was impressive offensively for the remainder of the evening, as the team hit .231 over the final three sets to pull out the victory.
The match turned on a third set that needed more than 25 points to decide a winner. Manhattanville opened up the biggest lead of the set at 15-9, but Purchase stormed back to gain a 20-18 advantage and eventually had two set points up 24-22. After a Valiant timeout, a service error and an attack error reopened the door for the home team, with the second saved set point coming after the Valiants made several huge plays to keep the ball in play, including a diving dig by Gomes to just keep the point alive before the error.
Manhattanville staved off a third set point on a kill by Johnson, followed by a big service ace to put the home team up 26-25. After an attack error by the Panthers gave the Valiants a second set point, Gomes put down a thunderous kill to give the Valiants a huge 2-1 set lead.
For the Valiants, senior Makana Gomes led the way with a near triple-double of a match-high 12 kills (on .257 hitting) and 19 assists to go with eight digs, while classmate Ally Johnson had a double-double with 10 kills and 12 digs.
Purchase will try to get back on track Saturday at Bard as it continues its non-cconference schedule on the road.
-Manhattanville Sports Information Contributed to this Report
