Box Score RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Felician College women's volleyball team saved a match point before eking out a 3-2 (25-22, 20-25, 25-20, 23-25, 18-16) Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference victory over visiting Goldey-Beacom College on Saturday afternoon at Job Gymnasium. It was Felician's first win since October 2010, snapping a 42-match losing streak.
Felician freshman opposite Olivia Emerson (Sparks, Nev./TMCC) hit .296 on the day with season highs of 23 kills and 21 digs. She put down eight kills in the decisive fifth set, and became the first player in Felician history to enjoy a match of 20+ kills and 20+ digs.
Freshman middle Kayla Gallagher (Bloomingburg, N.Y./Pine Bush) also posted 23 kills for the Golden Falcons (1-9, 1-3 CACC) while hitting .391. Emerson and Gallagher became the first pair of Felician teammates since 2007 to reach 20+ kills in the same match.
After Felician took a two-sets-to-one lead, the teams played a tightly contested fourth set that contained eight ties and five lead changes. The set was deadlocked for the final time at 22-22 before Goldey-Beacom (4-8, 0-4) won three of the last four points to force the fifth-set tiebreaker.
The Golden Falcons jumped out to a 5-1 lead in Set 5, but the Lightning stormed back to move ahead, 12-9. Three kills from Emerson and a GBC attack error brought Felician back to 13-13. A Felician service error put the hosts on the brink, but another kill from Emerson deadlocked the set at 14-14.
Goldey-Beacom then saved two match points before committing a service error to give the Golden Falcons a third opportunity to close out the match at 17-16. This time, Jenna Matesic (Paramus, N.J./Paramus), Felician's only senior, came up with a service ace, her team's 10th of the match, to end the contest exactly two hours after it started.
Matesic accumulated 14 kills and 20 digs and freshman Susan McKeever (North Fort Myers, Fla./North Fort Myers) also had a double-double with 19 assists and 14 digs for the hosts. Yet another Felician freshman, setter Sarah Shebel (Chandler, Ariz./Perry) recorded season highs of 37 assists and five aces to go along with seven digs.
Sophomore Kadi McCoy (Dallastown, Pa./Dallastown), the CACC's leader in kills per set, paced GBC with 17 kills, 16 digs and three aces.
Felician's last victory came in four sets on Oct. 26, 2010, at home against Concordia (N.Y.) College. The Golden Falcons also ended skids of 17 losses in a row at home and 17 consecutive setbacks against CACC South Division opponents.
