Riverdale, N.Y. (September 23, 2007)- Four Lady Jaspers tallied 10 or more digs as Manhattan outlasted Saint Peter's, 3-2, this afternoon in a MAAC match at Draddy Gym. The Lady Jaspers have won two matches in a row to even their conference record at 2-2.
Saint Peter's opened the match with a 5-0 run and did not look back, never letting the lead drop under two points and ended the game with a 9-4 run to take a 1-0 lead.
Game two opened in a similar fashion with the Peahens scoring the game's first five points. The second game differed in that this time, the Lady Jaspers climbed back into the game, scoring eight of the next 11 points to pull even at 8-8. The game went back and forth at that point, with neither team holding a lead bigger than two points, until, with the score knotted at 23-23, Manhattan ran off four consecutive points, and held on for a 30-27 win.
The third game was tight early, as the two teams were tied at 12-12 before Saint Peter's tallied four straight points, and extended the run to 18-7 to close out the game, 30-19, hitting .484 as a team.
Manhattan held a small lead in the early going of game four, until the Peahens rallied to tie the score at 15-15. The teams battled deep into the match, with each team failing to convert on a game point (MC at 29-28, and SPC at 30-29), before the Lady Jaspers scored the final three points of the game, the final coming on a well designed play by Manhattan head coach Ray Green, with Andrea Reiff forcing a fifth a deciding game with an important kill.
The deciding game was a fine representation of the rest of the match, as the score was close throughout, and was knotted at 11-11 before Manhattan scored four of the match's final six points, with the match clinching point coming on a Rita Welsh kill.
Sherryta Stokes paced the Manhattan offense with 16 kills, adding 15 digs. Reiff added 12 kills, 19 digs and four block assists, while Diane Strutner chipped in with 11 kills, and 16 digs, and Jackie Kapovich tallied 10 kills, and five block assists. Alyssa Getzel tallied a match-high 48 assists, adding 10 digs, and Ashley Watson recorded a match-high 36 digs.
Kim Mendoza tallied a match-high 19 kills for Saint Peter's, while Caroline Garvey added 45 assists and 15 digs.
Manhattan gets back in action on Wednesday, September 26, hosting Columbia University in Draddy Gym, with the match slated to begin at 7:00 p.m.
