College Volleyball
Canisius College 3, Rider University 1
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Match
BUFFALO, N.Y.--The Rider University volleyball team lost a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference match at Canisius 3-1, despite winning the opening set.
"The match was intense today," said head coach Christopher Feliciano. "I was pleased with the effort after our showing against Loyola last weekend. We scratched and fought for everything we got, we just made some errors at the wrong time."
The Golden Griffins won 23-25, 25-20, 25-9, 25-23.
"In set four, we were up by three points and it seemed that we were about to push the match to five," Feliciano said. "We just didn't pull it out. We are being more competitive in the conference and we haven't translated that into wins, yet. We are scratching that surface and we just have to keep working hard."
For Rider (4-17, 2-7 MAAC), junior co-captain Brittany Gajewski (Whitehouse Station/Hunterdon Central Regional) had had 19 digs with freshman Jaclyn Webber (Anaheim, Calif./Canyon) adding 10 kills and eight digs.
Also for the Broncs, freshman Kayla Wong (Tustin, Calif./Arnold O. Beckman) had 10 kills, freshman Ashlee Amatulli (Menifee, Calif./Temecula Valley) had 18 assists and sophomore Meghan Bartsch (Cranford) had 10 assists.
Freshman Rachel Jensen (Buena Park, Calif./Troy) had four blocks for the Broncs.
Canisius out-hit Rider .197 to .106 in a match that saw 22 ties and 10 lead changes.
The Golden Griffs travel to Lawrenceville for the MAAC re-match on November 13 in the final match of the regular season.
Canisius is 18-3 all-time against Rider and the Golden Griffins have won 11 in a row over the Broncs.
The Broncs have lost six straight.
Rider stays in Western, New York to face defending MAAC champion Niagara on Sunday.
"There is a reason we play the matches," Feliciano said. "Sunday, in no measure is going to be easy but it is not something that is impossible. We are excited to play against the top of our conference and see what we can do. Niagara has represented the MAAC well in the last couple NCAA tournaments and it is going to take one heck of a fight to win the match."
-RU-
