VCU Volleyball’s 18 match winning streak kept rolling towards the Bronx on a Friday afternoon at Fordham. A battle of the Rams was had and the visiting herd left the arena with their winning streak still intact.
Aces, Kills, Set 1. Oh My!
Fordham began the first set with a 3 point spring after VCU’s Gina Tuzzolo scored the opening kill. After two consecutive aces against them, Tuzzolo kept racking up kills to draw level. Julia Adler and Alica Kandler assisted in the kill tally later on in Set 1.
The set was a battle in the opening rallies. VCU was able to score two 3 point runs during the set thanks to Tori Baldwin and a few attacking errors by Fordham. Rebekah Strange put the Black & Gold further ahead with a service ace.
Set 1 ended with Kandler scoring the game-winner thanks to the assist by Dajah Ard. VCU won a close opening set 25-21 to go up 1-0.
You Get An Ace, AND YOU Get An Ace!
In Set 2, both teams once again traded advantages. Baldwin and Kandler kept VCU within striking distance while Strange scored another service ace to put the Rams in front. Fordham answered back with kills to keep the set highly competitive on the scoreboard.
At 10-10, Baldwin and Tuzzolo made a key double team block for VCU to take the lead. From that moment, Fordham could not draw level with VCU for the rest of the set. More aces were racked up by Vicky Giommarini, Madalon Simpson, and Strange to further VCU’s lead.
VCU racked up set point with another team block by Kandler and Jasmin Sneed. Fordham made a fatal service error to give VCU the 25-21 win in Set 2. VCU collected 4 service aces during that set.
Rack Up Another W
Kills came early for VCU in Set 3. Baldwin smashed one down the middle of the court followed by Giommarini and Kandler with additional kills. Tuzzolo sweetened VCU’s pot with another ace for the Black & Gold.
Fordham found themselves in deep water early in Set 3 thanks to a 4 point spread for VCU. Sneed scored two consecutive points on a solo block and a kill. Giommarini found another kill and Adler made it 9-5 VCU in Set 3.
After calling timeout, Fordham was able to recover and score much-needed points to tie the set up at 13-13. Both teams went back and forth with no clear advantage being made; VCU had an opportunity to close it out thanks to an Adler & Baldwin block at 25-24.
A timeout was called by Fordham as the Rams needed time to come up with an answer; the home team stayed alive with a clutch kill to tie the set at 25-25. Giommarini scored her 11th kill of the match to give VCU match point. Alica Kandler followed up with her 11th kill of the game for the match winner to give VCU the 28-26 victory in Set 3.
19 consecutive wins for VCU Volleyball as the streak claims the 3-0 sweep at Fordham. Tori Baldwin and Gina Tuzzolo added to VCU’s 50 kill count with 10 each. Julia Adler had an additional 7 and VCU had 6 services aces on the day.
VCU remains perfect in Atlantic 10 play at 8-0 and improves to 22-2 overall while maintaining their winning ways. Next up is a trip to Rhode Island for another A-10 Battle of the Rams on Sunday, October 22nd at noon.
