LAWRENCEVILLE?Despite 14 digs and seven kills from senior Lindsay Brant (Long Beach, N.Y./Long Beach), the Rider University volleyball team was swept by Siena in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference match Sunday afternoon. “It was an emotional letdown from yesterday's five-set match against Iona,” said head coach Emily Ahlquist. “We never really got going.”
The Saints won 25-20, 25-22, 25-16.
Also for Rider (8-8, 1-5 MAAC), junior Amy Jeary (Depew, N.Y./St. Mary's) had 23 digs with sophomore Amanda Piccolini (St. Clairsville, Ohio/St. Clairsville) adding 19 assists.
Junior Brittany Hayes (Mitchellville, Md./Elizabeth Seton) had four blocks for the Broncs.
The Broncs played without senior captain Lacey Johnson (Centennial, Colo./Grandview) who suffered a foot injury during the fifth set against Iona on Saturday.
“We had to change up the lineup with Lacey's injury and it shouldn't have affected everyone and it did,” Ahlquist added. “It will be good to have the next three days to practice with the lineup that we will be using.”
Winner of six straight, Siena (7-8, 5-1 MAAC) out-hit the Broncs .209 to .099.
Tied at six in the first set, Siena used a 5-0 run to break the set open. Rider cut the Saint lead to two on two separate occasions but could not get any closer in the five-point Siena win.
Set two, which had nine ties and seven lead changes, saw the Broncs battle back from a 12-8 deficit to tie the set at 16. After four more ties, Rider led 22-20 before the Saints used three kills and two Bronc errors for a 5-0 run to win the set by three.
Rider led 5-3 in the third set before the Saints scored 16 of the next 22 points to lead 19-9, eventually clinching the match with a nine point win.
Overall, the match saw 14 ties and nine lead changes.
Siena has won 13 of the 16 matches in the series against the Broncs with the last Rider win in 2004. The Saints defeated Rider twice last season by 3-1 scores.
“We just didn't have real steady play today,” Ahlquist said. “We lacked some emotion and that took away some of our energy. When you have an injury and adversity, you need someone to step up and we had that in spots but not for the whole match. We weren't mentally focused every play of every point.”
The Broncs have lost four of their last five matches.
Rider travels to Poughkeepsie, New York for a MAAC match on Saturday against Marist.
