ALBANY, NY - The Rider University volleyball team won their first MAAC Championship as they defeated second-seeded Canisius, 3-1 Saturday afternoon at the Albany Capital Center. The Broncs improve to 7-4 and clinch their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance. 

Junior Anilee Sher (Poughkeepsie, NY/Spackenkill) won MAAC Championship MVP off of another stellar performance, contributing a season-high 58 assists, 15 digs, and six service aces. Three Broncs had double-digit kills, led by sophomore Morgan Romano's (Oviedo, FL/Hagerty) game-high 24 kills. Junior Jillian Chan (Watchung, NJ/Watchung Hills Regional) led the Broncs by hitting .444 with 17 kills off the bench and senior Ali Ward (West Chester, PA/West Chester East) added 12 kills. Senior Danielle Blanco (El Paso, TX/Franklin) supplied a team-high 24 digs and sophomore Pamela Loh (Cortlandt Manor, NY/Hendrick Hudson) provided 13 digs.

Rider took the first set 25-20 and a hard-fought second set 29-27. Canisius answered with a third set triumph 25-22 before the Broncs clinched the fourth set 26-24.

QUOTES & NOTES

"After everything we've gone through with the pandemic, to see the joy on their faces, this why we do what we do."

On running out of subs in the second set:
"We played a match in 2019 against them where it went 39-37 and went six rotations with both of our defensive specialists in. Here we are again and we found a way to fight and somehow find a way to win that set with a 5'3 and a 5'5 defensive specialist front row. We'll take it."

On Rider's 11 service aces today:
"Our servers were really dialed in today. They did a phenomenal job of hitting our targets. We had certain people we wanted to go after, certain rotations and spots and it was like they were in target practice. They were locked in and it was really fun to watch them today."

On Rider advancing to the national stage of the NCAA Tournament:
"We're going to have a lot of work to do because we're going to see a really good program in the first round. The MAAC usually gets a Big Ten school or somebody like that, so we're going to have our work cut out for us, but I'm just happy for them to get this experience and to be a part of it as we're still trying to build a program." - Rider Head Coach Jeff Rotondo

"I'm so proud of our team. I'm so happy to be led by these two coaches. It was really hard. We had to make a lot of sacrifices and give up a lot of things that weren't easy for us. It was very hard to be away from our families and things we knew. We wanted to make history for our two seniors and our program." - Rider junior Anilee Sher

- This is Rider's first conference championship since 1996, when they had won the NEC regular season and tournament championships.
- Rider had competed in three straight NCAA Play-In Games from 1994-1996 as NEC Champions. The Broncs defeated Army in 1994 to advance to the main draw, where they fell to Northern Iowa in the first round. 

BRONCS BY THE NUMBERS
- After Sher had 56 assists yesterday, she created a new season-high of 58 in today's match. This was one off of her career-high of 59.
- This is Rider's second straight match where at least three players had double-digit kills. Prior to Friday, the Broncs only had one match in their first nine where this occurred.

UP NEXT
The Broncs will find out their first round opponent through the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship Selection Show on Sunday, April 4, at 4 pm on ESPNU. All first round matches will take place at the Chi Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska on Wednesday, April 14.