BLOOMFIELD, N.J. – The Felician University women's volleyball team saw a chance to take over first place in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference North Division elude its grasp with a 3-2 (16-25, 19-25, 25-19, 25-19, 15-13) CACC loss to host Bloomfield College on Wednesday night at B.C. Gymnasium.

Bloomfield (8-6, 7-4 CACC) moved 1 ½ games ahead of the Golden Falcons for the division lead. Felician has five league matches remaining, while the Bears have six. Post University, which fell to Dominican (N.Y.) College on Wednesday, is also in the mix, two games behind the Bears.

Bloomfield earned a sweep of the season series from the Golden Falcons, having also earned a 3-2 victory on Sept. 25 in Rutherford, N.J. Felician saw its third consecutive match, and sixth of 2021, come down to a deciding set. It is 2-4 in such occurrences.

Junior outside hitter Hannah Chiswick (Pittstown, N.J.) recorded 14 kills, seven digs and two aces for the Golden Falcons (8-16, 6-6). With a second-set ace she set the Felician record for aces in a season; her current total of 45 is two more than Megan Delamater had in 2008. Felician senior outside Maddie Sloan (Caldwell, N.J.) totaled 12 kills and 18 digs.

Freshman outside Jaizahir Marrero (Carolina, Puerto Rico) spearheaded the Bloomfield comeback, amassing 21 kills, 10 digs and six blocks on the night. Bear junior middle Ashley Gonzalez (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) hit .435 with 12 kills and four blocks.

Felician hit .333 in earning a quick Set 1 victory. A 7-0 run midway through the second set then propelled the visitors to a 2-0 lead in the match. But the Golden Falcons played from behind for most of the balance of the match. Set 3 was tied on five occasions in the early going before the Bears capitalized on three consecutive Felician errors to move ahead and systematically pull away. Bloomfield captured the first six points of Set 4 and were ahead, 14-5, on its way to tying the match.

With a kill apiece and a shared block, Marrero and Gonzalez helped stake Bloomfield to a 5-2 edge in the deciding set. Six times thereafter, Felician trailed by one point but could not draw even. On the last such occasion, with the Bears ahead, 14-13, a kill by Gonzalez out of a Bloomfield timeout ended the match, which lasted two hours, one minute.

Junior middle blocker Catherine Lentsch (Elhorn, Neb.) hit .321 with 10 kills and four blocks for Felician.

The Golden Falcons entertain Goldey-Beacom College in CACC action on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Rutherford, N.J.