ASTON, Pa. – The Neumann University women's volleyball team defeated Rowan University 3-1 in the final home match of the regular season on Friday evening.
Prior to the match, the Knights honored its two seniors,
Bridget Lozier and
Rachael Hoffman. During the third set, junior
Melanie Malseed tallied her 1,000
th career kill.
Malseed tallied 15 kills and 19 digs in the match.
Ariana Pena hit .464 and finished with 17 kills. Hofmann tallied nine kills and Lozier added five.
Alex Koppany handed out 24 assists.
Rachel Cray dished out 20.
Hayley Glah was in on the assist action with 10. Glah also added 22 digs. Koppany tallied 13 digs and
Carlee Herrin added 1 0.
The first three sets were battles. The Profs jumped out to an early 9-2 lead in set number one. The Knights chipped their way back into the match and tied the score at 16. Two kills by Hoffman tied the set at 18 and with Herrin serving, the Knights took their first lead and took a 22-18 advantage. A kill by Hoffman and Malseed sealed the first set win, 25-21.
Rowan held a few points advantage throughout most of the second set. Neumann was able to tie the game at 19 and 21, but the Profs tallied the final few points to take set two, 25-22, and tie the match at one.
The Profs jumped out to a 22-14 lead in the third set. The Knights were not going down quietly and while
Kirsten Longueira was serving, Neumann came back for a 22-19 score. After a Rowan kill, Malseed tallied a kill and got Hoffman to the service line. The Knights took advantage of some Prof attack errors and took a 24-23 advantage. Rowan tied the set at 24 on the next point. Pena and Malseed then notched back-to-back kills to seal the come from behind third set win, 26-24.
The Knights took a 6-1 lead to start the fourth set. The Profs came back and tied the game at seven. Pena was not going to allow a fifth set and tallied 10 of her kills in the fourth set alone, including the seceding point and the 25-14 set win and 3-1 match win.
Neumann (15-13) will wrap up the regular season tomorrow with a tri-match at DeSales. The Knights will face DeSales at 10:00 AM and Stockton at 12:00 PM.