SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts – The American International College women's volleyball team overcame a slow start to sweep Franklin Pierce University, 25-23, 25-16, 25-15, in the Northeast-10 Quarterfinals on Thursday, November 10.
AIC improves to 27-2 with the victory.
It was a slow start for both teams as the Ravens were able to use their middles to great effect; they had five blocks in the first set, and held a 19-14 lead late, with a pair of blocks even after an AIC timeout. However, the Yellow Jackets rallied with seven of the next eight points as Aleksandra Ivanovic started the run with three points and added a block to help AIC to the lead. The back-and-forth battle reached 24-23 AIC, but the Yellow Jackets ended the set on a ball by Camille Diaz Marin that found the wood on the Ravens side.
AIC was able to shake off the challenges of the first set to jump to a 7-3 lead thanks in part to a pair of aces by Paola Soto Burgos, and simply kept the Ravens at bay as the home side built up to a 24-14 lead. Three points later, Andrea Serra Rosa ended the set with a kill, pushing AIC to 2-0.
The Ravens gave it their all in the third, putting up several more strong blocks, but the Yellow Jackets had answers for everything the visiting side did. They quickly built up a 13-6 lead as Serra Rosa and Soto Burgos piled up kills, and on match point, Ivanovic aced the serve to end the match.
As a team, AIC hit .069 in the first set, but over the rest of the match hit .349 as a team. Serra Rosa's 15 kills led the match, while Soto Burgos added 11. Naomi Eckert Rivera notched 37 assists, and she and Perla Rosa led AIC with 12 digs apiece.
By reaching the NE10 Semifinal as the top seed in the conference, AIC will host both matchups at the Butova Gym on Saturday, November 12. The Yellow Jackets will play fourth-seeded Southern New Hampshire University, who swept Saint Anselm College, at 4:00 p.m., and at 6:30 p.m. third-seeded Adelphi University, which dispatched the University of New Haven, will battle seventh-seeded Southern Connecticut State University following the Owls upset of Bentley University.
