Corinne McCarthy
Corinne McCarthy (Photo Courtesy of Luke Tracy)

Le Moyne Volleyball Defeats Ravens 3-0 Friday Night

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (November 2, 2018) – The Franklin Pierce University volleyball team headed out away from campus for their final road trip of the season. FPU suffered a 3-0 (14-25, 15-25, 10-25) setback to Northeast-10 Conference opponent Le Moyne College Friday evening on Ted Grant Court. With the win, the Dolphins improve to 14-9, 6-7 NE10 while the Ravens lost their 12th league battle.

Freshman outside hitter Cierra Dolan (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) paced Pierce with a team-best seven kills and a .222 hitting percentage while recording two blocks. On the defensive end, Brittney Carias (Burlingame, Calif.) produced a game-best 14 digs.

A trio of Dolphins recorded double-digit kills including Jacquelyne Ghindia who hit .579 in the match.

The Ravens took their first lead of the contest 3-2 when Mary Pease (East Haddam, Conn.) set up Dolan at the left pin for a tip into the middle of the court. Following an Abigail Garnhart (Colorado Springs, Colo.) kill, Jocelyn Moody (Biddeford, Maine) took service and deposited an ace to give the Ravens an early 5-3 edge. Le Moyne responded going on a 9-2 scoring binge capped off by a Raven attack error to push in front 12-7. After a timeout, FPU tallied two points off a Lauren Herrera (Simi Valley, Calif.) fake set and a Dolphin attack miscue to cut into their deficit at 12-9. The Dolphins remained ahead through the middle stages of the set as a Garnhart and Dolan block brought the set to an 18-13 Le Moyne tally. The Dolphins closed their first set victory outscoring the Ravens 7-1.

In the second set, Le Moyne jumped out to a 3-0 advantage in the early going. Pierce roared back using kills by Dolan and Garnhart and a Dolphin bad set to tie at 3-3. The set of runs continued as Le Moyne poured on a 12-5 binge of their own to move ahead 15-8. A Dolan kill coupled with two Dolphin attack errors brought the Raven deficit to five, 16-11. Five straight from Le Moyne gave the hosts a 10-point lead until three Raven mistakes concluded the set.

A Breanna Mineweaser (Honey Brook, Pa.) middle mash handed out by Herrera deadlocked the score 2-2. Trailing by one, Garnhart successfully killed off a Herrera set combined with a Dolphin ball handling error pushed Pierce ahead 4-3.  Le Moyne came back with seven straight points of their own to lead 10-4. The score eventually moved to an 11 point Le Moyne lead, but a Corinne McCarthy (Kalamazoo, Mich.) and Mineweaser stuff with another Mineweaser kill took the third set to 17-9. Le Moyne would out produce the Ravens 8-1 over the final couple of serves.

The Ravens wrap up their 2018 slate tomorrow when they take on NE10 opponent the College of Saint Rose with first serve slated for 1:00 p.m.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://fpuravens.com). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://fpuravens.com/store). You can also follow the volleyball program on Twitter (https://twitter.com/FPURavensVB) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/fpuravensvb/).