The New York University women's volleyball team opened its season with a four-set victory over Ramapo College at the John A. Paulson Center in Manhattan on Tuesday, September 1.
The Violets took the first set with ease by a score of 25-13 before dropping the second set 25-22. NYU rebounded with 25-18 and 25-17 set wins to close out the match.
In front of an excited home crowd on
Tear It Up! night, the Violets got off to a hot start behind service aces from
Grace Nelson and
Coco Barton along with a pair of kills from
Chloe Lemons. Freshman
KylieEmma Obeto notched her first career kill to make it a 5-1 advantage for NYU, a lead that it would not relinquish all set.
The Roadrunners fought back to cut the deficit to 12-11, but the Violets responded by taking 13 of the next 15 points, nine coming via kills, to capture the opening set.
Ramapo quickly stopped NYU's momentum by winning the first three points of set two. The Violets tied the score at 5-5, the first of 10 ties throughout the set. A
Tatum Chase kill made it 22-22 before Ramapo rattled off three straight to secure the set and knot the match at one set apiece.
Midway through set three,
Stella Dillon notched three kills to spark a 7-2 NYU run to take an 18-11 advantage. The Roadrunners then capitalized on a few attack errors to cut the Violets' lead to 20-18.
Helena Foord managed a kill, and Barton followed that up with three consecutive kills to force set point. An attack error by Ramapo gave NYU the set three victory, 25-18.
The final set mirrored the first, as the Violets never trailed. Three-straight points by the Roadrunners knotted the score at 6-6 before NYU took control, highlighted by a 9-2 run to make it 17-9 behind two kills and a service ace from
Sarah Beville.
NYU took care of business from there, with
Alden Roberts recording a service ace to end claim the match.
Barton notched a match-high 12 kills with an efficient .647 attack percentage.
Lucianna Welles impressed in her first collegiate game with nine kills to go with a .400 attack percentage while adding two blocks on the defensive end.
The trio of Roberts,
Kate Scherlacher, and
Jessica Ding each contributed double-digit assists with 20, 14, and 11, respectively. Roberts led her team with two service aces.
Obeto showcased her talents in her collegiate debut, leading NYU with four blocks. She added eight kills.
Lily Leung and
Daniela Laing held down the back row for the Violets with 12 and eight digs, respectively.
Scherlacher and Leung were also making their first appearances at the collegiate level, adding to the group of freshmen to make an impact tonight for NYU.
The Violets dominated offensively at the net throughout the match with 61 kills to Ramapo's 37.
"Today showed how talented our team is and how much depth we have," said Head Coach
Andrew Brown. "Shows that we're doing all the right things in practice, in terms of preparing everybody to be ready for an opportunity."
Brown also remarked that his team was able to "feed off of" the support of the fans tonight.
The Violets will look ahead to the Captains Classic this weekend. NYU's first of three weekend matches begins at 3:00pm against host Christopher Newport on Friday.
