College Volleyball – BC Tournament
Boston College 3, Rider University 2

CHESTNUT HILL, MA—Game, Set, and almost Match.

The Rider University volleyball team pushed the host Eagles of the Atlantic Coast Conference to the limit and had a match point opportunity leading 14-13 in the fifth and deciding set, before losing 3-2 on Friday evening during the opening night of action at the Boston College Tournament.

“An amazing match,” said head coach Christopher Feliciano.  “Outside of losing the match, there is nothing negative about the experience.  We have a nice group of young ladies that have kind of found themselves a little bit.”

The Eagles prevailed 14-25, 25-20, 25-14, 23-25, 16-14 in a match that had 35 ties and 16 lead changes including 12 ties and seven lead changes in the final set.

For Rider, junior Veronica Koval (Allentown, PA/Parkland) had 52 assists and 10 digs in the five-set match with junior Emma Aldaya (Prospect Park, PA/Merion Mercy Academy) adding 18 digs and senior Ryan Ackermann (Ashburn, VA/Stone Bridge) continued her strong early season play with 15 kills, 14 digs and three blocks.

“Veronica was great and so was Ackermann with a triple double (16.5 points included),” Feliciano said.  “They are growing into their own.  That's the player development that we have been working on with all the players.  We push them to get better and Ryan and Veronica are great examples of that.”

Also for the Broncs, junior Jennifer Borio (Ridley Park, PA/Padua Academy) had 14 kills and sophomore Hailey Riede (Haworth/Northern Valley-Demarest) attacked .333 and led the squad with 17 kills.

“The growth of the team has been tremendous,” said Feliciano.  “There are still some areas of consistency that we need to work on but overall, tonight was just an impressive effort.  It was a great battle against an ACC team.  We were very clean in our play tonight and with that said the players want to still be cleaner and that extra level of play, that want of excellence, that's the level of performance that we are striving to achieve.”

Rider faces UMass. Lowell and Fairleigh Dickinson on Saturday in the final two matches of the tournament.

“If we replicate what we did tonight, we will have a heck of a conference season,” Feliciano added.  “But we need to take care of things on Saturday and we have to bring tonight's effort to those matches.  That's a true sign of a team that can be great; to be able to come back on the road and bring that effort every time you step on the court.”

The Broncs return home to open Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play against Quinnipiac University at 1pm on September 17 in Alumni Gymnasium.

-RU-