Jersey City, N.J. ? The Lady Jaspers dropped a match to MAAC rival Saint Peter's College, 3-1 despite a 15 kill, 20 dig performance from Junior Sherrtya Stokes. Manhattan and Saint Peter's have each had a victory in their two contests this season.
The Lady J's traveled Jersey City, N.J. looking to improve their MAAC record against Saint Peter's. In the first game, Manhattan found themselves playing on their heels as they were in a 10 point hole, 19-9. The Lady Jaspers put together a few scoring runs as they battled back to cut the deficit to only two points, 25-23. The Peahens would score the next four consecutive points and go on to win the first game, 30-24.
The second game was a hard fought battle between the two teams. Early in the game, Manhattan built up a 13-9 lead and was looking to add to it. But Saint Peter's was not going to let that happen as they battled back to tie the game up at 15. This was a back and forth battles and the game saw five ties and four lead changes. But in the end, Saint Peter's pulled away with the game two victory, 30-25 and now led the match 2-0.
Manhattan was now fighting to avoid another loss and came out in game three with a fury. The game was close for the first few points and Manhattan had a slim three point lead, 10-7. But the Lady Jaspers would not look back as they soon increased their lead 18-10. The Lady J's would go on to take the third game, 30-16 due to the teams 16 kills and .298 hitting percentage.
The Lady Jaspers were looking to take the momentum from their game three victory into the fourth and mount a comeback. Both teams left it all out on the floor as the game saw 15 ties and 12 lead changes. The largest lead any team had throughout the game was only three points. Towards the end of the game, Manhattan found itself down 29-27 and suffering a loss. But the Lady J's battled back by scoring the next three consecutive points and led the game 30-29. The Lady Jaspers were one point away from forcing the match into a fifth and deciding game, but Saint Peter's battled back to tie the game at 30. With the Peahens up 33-32, they could not battle back far enough as Saint Peter's took the fourth game 34-32 and won the match, 3-1.
Junior Sherrtya Stokes had a team high 20 digs to anchor the Manhattan defense as well as contributing 15 kills on the offensive side. Fellow Junior, Jackie Kapovich had a game high 18 kills in the Lady J's loss. Manhattan will continue their regular season schedule as they will travel to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. to take on Marist College Saturday, October 27 at 2:00 PM.
