NEW ROCHELLE, NY – The Iona College volleyball program ended its regular season at the Hynes Center on Sunday with a pair of contests against the Manhattan Jaspers. As part of the days festivities the Maroon & Gold hosted senior day in honor of its two captains,
Jamie Smith and
Taylor Cole.
The Gaels dropped both matches to the Jaspers in five sets. Iona battled despite having only seven active players due to COVID-19 safety guidelines. The Maroon & Gold end the regular season with a 3-6 MAAC record. They wait their placement and first round matchup in the 2020 MAAC Volleyball Championship.
MATCH ONE RECAP: MANHATTAN 3, IONA 2 (22-25, 19-25, 25-22, 25-19, 11-15)
In a unique position of having only seven players available, the Maroon & Gold took some time to find their footing in the first match on Sunday. Iona found itself down two sets to none and needed a momentous effort to get back into the match and force a back and forth fifth set.
The Jaspers won the first set 25-22 behind five kills from Erin Hoener and four kills from Lizzi Brown. Manhattan had a match-best 68% side out percentage. Iona got four kills from
Jamie Smith and
Taylor Cole but Manhattan's .268 attack percentage was too much to overcome.
In the second set the Jaspers collected a match-best 17 kills, five of which came from Hoener and Bianca Veira. Manhattan hit .261 while holding the Gaels to .154. Iona trailed the entire second set before falling 25-19. The second set was the only one not to have a tie or lead change.
Alessandra Brady was busy in the second game with 14 receptions and five digs.
After the five-minute intermission, the tides turned, and the Maroon & Gold found a rhythm. Iona head coach
Esai Velez-Perez switched up the starting lineup and it paid immediate dividends.
Maile Powell, who had only two sets in the first two sets, came on strong with 15 assists in the third set. The Gaels pounded out 18 kills and hit a match-best .471. Brady and
Cassandra Patsos combined for 10 kills on 17 swings. The key moment in the set came with the game was tied at 20 apiece. Smith, Brady and Patsos made it three straight kills and points for the Gaels to lead the way for a 25-22 decision.
The fourth set was close throughout with nine ties and a pair of lead changes. Fighting to stay alive, Brady ensured hope lived on with eight kills on 11 swings. The Gaels held Hoener to three kills and Manhattan to a .172 attack percentage. Powell dished out 10 assists on which the Gaels hit 40.0% off of. Despite the stats all leaning the Maroon & Gold way, Iona needed a 7-1 run at the end of the set at 25-19 and push a fifth and final set.
In the fifth set, Iona and Manhattan exchanged four lead changes and five ties. The Jaspers went ahead 5-0 behind the serving of Meagan Miller to begin the match. The Gaels answered with some nice serving from Cole and it was eventually a Maroon & Gold advantage after
Samantha Juran served up three straight aces.
Manhattan retook the lead on three straight Gael attacking errors but a kill from Brady knotted it up at 10-10. The match ended with Abby Wilde serving for the Jaspers and her menace of a serve propelled the Jaspers to a 15-11 fifth set and match victory.
MATCH ONE STATISTICAL LEADERS:
- Erin Hoener had a match-best 21 kills for Manhattan on 37 swings. She finished with an outstanding kill percentage of 64.9%. Hoener finished with 25.5 points.
- Abby Wilde of the Jaspers had a match-best 47 assists. Samantha Juran and Maile Powell split the assists for the Maroon & Gold collected 19 and 31 respectfully.
- Jamie Smith, Cassandra Patsos and Julia Thomas each had five blocks for Iona.
- Brady had a career-best 21 kills to lead the Maroon & Gold. It is only the third time in her career that she had double-digit kill totals.
- Smith ended up with her third double-double of the season with 12 kills and 15 digs.
- Taylor Cole, playing out of position out of necessity, finished the first match with a career-best 11 kills and 16.5 points.
MATCH ONE NOTABLE NUGGETS
- Iona ended up having more kills, service aces and blocks than Manhattan in the match.
- Iona matched its season-best with 12 service aces. It had set its previous season-best in its last match against Canisius (March 21).
- The Gaels also tied a season-worst with 10 reception errors, again matching that against the Golden Griffins (March 21).
- The loss to Manhattan was the first time this season Iona lost when having more than 10 blocks as a team.
- Manhattan matched a Gaels opponent-high with 10 aces.
- The Jaspers had a hitting percentage of .251 compared to .229 for the Gaels.
MATCH TWO RECAP: MANHATTAN 3, IONA 2 (23-25, 25-12, 25-16, 25-27, 9-15)
Iona and Manhattan traded blows in the first set of match two. There were 11 dies and three lead changes and the largest lead for either team was five points. Brown gave the Jaspers a 22-17 lead, but the margin quickly dissipated with Juran pitching. The sophomore had a kill and two service aces as the Gaels run five straight points to tie the game at 22. An unfortunate service error gave the Jaspers back the serve. Miller closed it out for Manhattan with a kill and strong serve to secure the first set, 25-23.
The Maroon & Gold found another groove in the second and third set. Cole was inserted back into the libero position and the players begin finding their spots on the court. The Gaels had a 66% side out percentage while Manhattan had only 32%. The Iona defense kept the Jaspers to a -0.233 attack percentage. Thomas had two solo blocks in the game. The Gaels took the second set, 25-12, with a sweet seven-point run to separate themselves in the middle of the set.
In the third set the Gaels took an early 10-2 lead behind strong serving from Cole and Powell to start. The Jaspers got back within four at 14-10, but attack errors ended any possible run. Brady had 13 swings in the third set and collected six kills. Juran and Powell split the assists as the Gaels hit .237 as a team and led from start to finish.
The fourth set was a battle as Iona and Manhattan traded the lead three ties and knotted themselves up 10 times. Vieira had five kills in the set and Wilde was everywhere with six assists and four kills. Juran distributed the offense for the Gaels with seven assists. Brady, Smith and Patsos each had four kills. With the offense flowing on either side, it was a back-to-back kills from Vieira and Brown that ended the set, 27-25, and tied the match at two sets a piece. Iona battled off three set points before finally breaking.
The fifth set in match two mirrored the same pattern of match one. The Jaspers served first and jumped out to a 5-1 lead. The Gaels were playing catchup the entire set and never go nearer than three points. Ashley Chan served up three straight points to give Manhattan the match point and Brown collected the final kill to end the fifth set, 15-9.
MATCH TWO STATISTICAL LEADERS
- Smith led all players with 17 kills on 44 swings. She also contributed three aces and a season-best 17 digs. She finishes the regular season with four double-doubles.
- Brady struck for 16 kills and just missed out a double-double by just one dig.
- Patsos collected her first double-double of the season with 11 kills and 14 digs.
- Cole, returning her traditional libero position in the second set, had a team-high 18 digs.
- Hoener was the only player with double-digit kills for the Jaspers. She finished the second match with 11 kills and 15.5 points.
- Wilde had 23 assists as the starting setter and Julieanne McKee came in for relief for 15 assists.
- Jaspers libero Kia Riner had a match-high 23 digs.
MATCH TWO NOTABLE NUGGETS
- Iona had more service aces, kills, digs and blocks than Manhattan.
- The two losses to the Jaspers today ended a seven-game win streak over their neighborhood MAAC foe. It is the first time Manhattan has swept the Maroon & Gold since 2015.
- The Gaels had 14 block assists in both matches against the Jaspers. Iona had a season-best eight solo blocks.
- The Maroon & Gold had five players with 10+ digs in the match two loss.
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