Mariners Post Second-Straight Victory
KINGS POINT, N.Y. -
Freshmen Janelle Kibler-Silengo, Derien Jastrzebski and Kaitlyn Robbins all posted career highs to help lead the United States Merchant Marine Academy volleyball team to a 3-1 victory (30-12, 30-22, 24-30, 30-28) over York College on Wednesday night. Additionally, sophomore co-captain Jesselyn LaValley matched a career mark with five service aces in the Mariners' second straight win. The club ran a 6-2 offense for the second straight game and stands a perfect 2-0 to date when utilizing it.
USMMA improves to 4-4 overall, 0-0 in Landmark Conference action. York drops to 1-8 overall, 1-2 in CUNYAC play.
The Mariners rolled through the first set. The club took a commanding 17-7 lead and never looked back en route to a 30-12 victory. York hung around in the second set, but the Mariners still pulled out a 30-22 win.
The Cardinals took a 10-5 lead in the third set, but the Mariners rallied for six straight points to make it 11-10 in their favor. The teams kept trading points and leads the rest of the way, but it was York that emerged with a 30-24 win.
The teams played a tight fourth set and the Mariners eventually pulled away with a 26-20 advantage. However, York would not go down lightly as it would tie up the score at 26-26. In the end, it was the Mariners that escaped with a 30-28 set win on a Cardinal service error.
Kibler-Silengo posted career highs in kills and hitting percentage for the second straight contest. She finished with five kills and a .267 hitting percentage tonight. Jastrzebski posted a career-best 17 digs which was also a match high. LaValley matched a career mark by posting five service aces for the second straight contest.
Jenna Palaschak led the team with a .308 hitting percentage and 20 assists. In addition to her five service aces, LaValley had another double-double courtesy of a match high 15 kills and 14 digs. Ana Fuschetto fell just shy of a double-double with 12 digs and nine assists while Stephanie Dawbwer led the club with two blocks.
The Mariners now head to south to Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa. for a full weekend of games against Landmark opponents. None of the seven teams in the conference will enter the weekend with a losing record as five teams have winning mark and two teams are even with a .500 winning percentage.
On Saturday, the club will face reigning NCAA National Champion and No. 1 nationally-ranked Juniata at 3:30 p.m. The Mariners will conclude play on Sunday against Susquehanna at 10 a.m. and Catholic at 12:30 p.m. The Juniata match will mark the first time ever that the program has faced the reigning national champion. It will also mark the first time since 1997 that a fall sport at USMMA has faced the national champs when Mike Smolens and the soccer team took a 3-1 loss to the College of New Jersey ten years ago.