LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ – The Rider University volleyball team played strong Sunday afternoon, but ultimately fell in three sets to Fairfield in a rematch of the 2021 MAAC Championship Match. The Broncs fall to 5-15 on the year, including a 3-7 MAAC mark. The Stags improve to 15-6 overall and 9-1 in league play.
 
The Broncs set the tone early, getting a solo block by Christina Blount (Liberty Township, OH/Lakota East) on the opening point of the match, followed by a combo block from Blount and Carley McAleavey (Smithtown, NY/Smithtown West), both against reigning MAAC Player of the Year KJ Johnson, as Rider built a 4-0 lead. Trailing 13-7 the Stags made their first run of the match, scoring five straight to trim the Rider lead to 13-12. Fairfield would take their first lead of the match at 16-15. Leading 19-18, Fairfield scored three-straight and went on to take the set 25-20.
 
The second set began like the first with Rider jumping out to a 4-0 lead. Fairfield again had the response, taking a 6-5 lead. Up 17-16, Fairfield scored four-straight. Rider went on a 5-1 run to cut the lead to 22-21, but Fairfield served out the set from there.
 
The Broncs fell behind early in the third set. But down 14-10, Rider went on a 7-1 run during the serves of Alicia Iafrate (Closter, NJ/Demarest) and Sydney Bond (Homestead, FL/Westminster Christian). With Rider leading 19-18, Fairfield scored four-straight, going on to win the decisive set 25-20.
 
QUOTES & NOTES
"We are really pleased with the response to yesterday's match. The energy was really good, so I think we can take something away from this match as far as our ability to play at a high level."
 
"There was some anger from yesterday's game that we wanted to tap into. Our intent was to really go after it and not sit back and let Fairfield do what they wanted."
 
"We made a decision to get some blocking on the floor and slow them down a little bit and it looks like it worked. We'll look at the film, but it definitely had some good results out of the first time that we tried it." – Head Coach Jeff Rotondo
 
"When I started, I wanted to make sure they knew they're at our court and they weren't just going to get an easy win. Carley did a great job setting up the block and I just had to close."
 
"Me and Carley have a lot of energy together, but normally we aren't on the court at the same time. Now that we're together, it's like a wall and it's going to be hard to hit around us." – Sophomore Middle Hitter Christina Blount
 
- Fairfield leads the all-time series 40-5.
- Pamela Loh (Cortlandt Manor, NY/Hendrick Hudson) led Rider with 11 digs, her eighth double-digit dig match of the season.
- Iafrate had 10 digs, her third time in double figures this season.

BRONCS BY THE NUMBERS
- Both offenses struggled with the Broncs hitting just .072 in the match, to .186 for Fairfield.
- Rider had just 27 kills to 40 for the Stags.
- Kianny Santiago (San Juan, PR/Hudson Catholic (NJ)) led Rider with seven kills.
- Julia Slivka (Adamstown, MD/Tuscarora) narrowly missed a double-double with 10 assists and nine digs.
- Blount had five blocks with McAleavey adding four.

UP NEXT
Rider wraps up its four-match homestand on Wednesday. The Broncs host Iona at 7 p.m.