Box score
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Malia McGuinness had 19 kills and 13 digs to lead Manhattan College volleyball to a 3-2 (25-23, 28-26, 24-26, 22-25, 15-6) win over Northern Kentucky University in early action at the Harvard Invitational.
NKU (8-1), which saw its season-opening eight-match winning streak halted, got an outstanding effort from
Jenna Ruble, who led the Norse with 17 kills while attacking at a .417 clip and added six blocks.
Jenna Schreiver directed the offense with 58 assists to go with nine digs, six service aces and five blocks.
Haley Lippert also added 15 kills while
Shelby Buschur had 13 kills and four blocks.
Defensively, the Norse were led by
Kylee Tarantino, who collected 23 digs and moved into fifth place on the Norse all-time digs list. Freshman
Jayden Julian also added a career-high 22 digs and
Kelly Morrissey chipped in her fifth double-double of the season, collecting 10 kills and 15 digs.
The Norse will look to return to their winning ways later tonight against Harvard. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m.
A 9-3 run by the Jaspers (2-6) late in Set 1 turned a 13-11 deficit into a 19-16 lead. The Norse came back with three points to tie the set and keep it close to 22-22, but Manhattan closed it out on a pair of kills from Sydney Volovski and the set winner by Mariana Furquim.
Set 2 saw the Jaspers again use a 9-2 run to jump out to an early lead, but the Norse again responded immediately, going 8-2 over the next 10 points leaving the set level at 18-18. The teams again kept it close, going back and forth to 25-25 until Furquim again put home a pair of points and McGuinness got the 28-26 winner.
A six-point run by the Norse in Set 3 was quickly answered by a seven-point rally on the part of the Jaspers, who held serve to 24-21 and looked to turn the match into a sweep. However, the Norse rallied all the way back with a set-winning five-point swing, keyed by a pair of Schreiver service aces and a pair of Lippert kills, keeping the Norse alive.
Manhattan staked an early 11-4 lead in Set 4 and again appeared to be putting the match away before NKU screamed back from nowhere, putting together a 17-6 run to close out a 25-22 victory to tie the match. However, the comeback magic ended there, as the Jaspers took a 7-1 advantage in the deciding set en route to a 15-6 win.
Furquim had 16 kills and five blocks while Volovski claimed 13 kills and six blocks, including three solo blocks, to help pace the Jaspers.
