Women's volleyball downs Mercy

SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts – The American International College women's volleyball team earned a 3-1 victory over Mercy College on Tuesday, September 14.

AIC improves to 11-1 on the season with the win.

The Yellow Jackets built to a comfortable 22-14 lead in the first set, but the Mavericks ran off six straight points to get within two. Andrea Serra Rosa, who had come out of the match, reentered and promptly drove a shot down the left sideline to end the run, and the Yellow Jackets won the set 25-20.

The second set was back-and-forth early, but the Yellow Jackets took the lead midway through by stringing together several points, particularly off the hands of Serra Rosa and Paola Soto Burgos. Again the Mavericks made a small run late, but errors ended their threat, and Aleksandra Ivanovic put down the final point of the set to hand AIC the 25-19 result.

Facing a 2-0 deficit, the Mavericks roared out of a 7-2 lead as Stephanie Lankhorst landed a kill and then two aces in the early run. AIC battled and chipped away at the lead, getting to within 21-20 as Soto Burgos and Amber Williams combined for back-to-back blocks, but Mercy never conceded the tying point, and took the set 25-22.

In the fourth, it was AIC that made the early run, jumping ahead 8-2 after a Williams block and Soto Burgos kill. The Yellow Jackets kept the Mavericks at arm's length most of the set, with a trio of errors the only thing allowing Mercy to get even within five at 22-17, but the final three points, and the match, went to AIC.

Serra Rosa led the match with 19 kills, moving her into sole possession of fifth place in Northeast-10 Conference history with 1615. She passed UMass-Lowell's Julie Handy, who had recorded 1609 kills. The four players ahead of Serra Rosa all played either during the sideout scoring era or the 30-point rally scoring era.

AIC has a week off before opening NE10 play on Tuesday, September 20 at 7:00 p.m. against Pace University.