College Volleyball
La Salle University 3, Rider University 2
LAWRENCEVILLE--Despite leading two sets to one, the Rider University volleyball team lost a heartbreaker to La Salle University on Wednesday night in a non-conference match.
"This is a hard match to swallow," said head coach Christopher Feliciano. "The win was right there and we didn't execute."
"This was a tough loss," added assistant coach Melissa Baccari. "There were points in the match where we were doing things right and executing and points where we broke down. We didn't pass consistently enough and that took away a lot of our one on one options."
The Explorers won 25-22, 19-25, 18-25, 25-14, 15-11 in a match that took almost two hours and featured 37 ties and 16 lead changes.
For Rider (4-13), freshman Jaclyn Webber (Anaheim, Calif./Canyon) had a 'double-double' with 18 digs and 17 kills, compiling 17 of the 58 Bronc offensive points.
"Jaclyn has a unique ability to bring a different type of energy onto the court," said Baccari. "Unfortunately, we had to rely on her too much because of our passing and she couldn't get the kills that she needed to. She became our 'go to' person out of a lack of options. With the passing struggling, we couldn't have our middles or our right side hitters involved as much as we needed."
Also for the Broncs, freshman Kayla Wong (Tustin, Calif./Arnold O. Beckman) had 14 kills and four digs, freshman Ashlee Amatulli (Menifee, Calif./Temecula Valley) had 34 assists and eight digs with freshman Shelbie Stannard (Alvin, Texas/Alvin) adding 15 digs and sophomore Bridget Sheerin (Oak Lawn, Ill./Marist) compiling 12 digs.
Rider had only eight service errors (to 12 for La Salle) but three Bronc errors came during the fifth and final set of the match.
"We left points out there," Baccari said. "We didn't execute as well as we should have, passing, defensive errors, service errors. We didn't capitalize and make those points happen."
La Salle (4-15) out-hit the Broncs .208 to .156.
La Salle leads the all-time series 23-12 in the series that started in 1980. The Explorers defeated Rider 3-0 in Philadelphia to open the 2010 season.
The match had over 600 fans in attendance as each of Rider's 20 varsity teams was represented as part of Code Cranberry.
"The crowd was great," Baccari said. "The players were really excited to play in front of a big crowd. We really appreciate the fellow student-athletes coming out and our fans as well. We try to put on a good show every time and it was great to hear the excitement in the crowd when we got points and the positive support when we lost points. We appreciate that and hope they will come out again."
"I'm very appreciative of the fans," Feliciano added. "They did a great job supporting us and deserved to see a win. They did all they could to help us and we are grateful for their continued support."
Code Cranberry was initiated several years ago to bolster support among Rider's student-athletes with other varsity teams attending each other's games and competitions on designated nights during the season.
Rider travels to New Rochelle, New York on Saturday to take on Iona in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference match at 2pm.
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