By David F.P. [Modest Photo Gallery]

NEW HAVEN, CT- The Falcons of Albertus Magnus hosted the Emmanuel Saints Saturday morning at their home court, but would be swept by the visitors 3 sets to 0.

Set 1 was a very back and forth contest with each team reaching a 25-25 tie preventing the normal victory. The set would continue until Emmanuel threw together two straight points to take it 28-26.

For Emmanuel offensive production included when Danielle Rose began to amass her team leading kills early on as she had two kills within the first four points, Brittany Tutalo and Sarah Colby had an early tandem block, one of the few for the Saints in the match. Following another Rose kill, Shannon Dudley landed a service ace just in bounds to take the lead. Tutalo would add one soon after as well. Dudley and Moriah Logan had another of the team’s rare blocks late. As the set drew to a close Rose would pick up yet another kill, Tutalo would as well, and Logan had the team’s penultimate point when she tapped the ball over the net and it bounced off multiple defenders before hitting the floor.

For Albertus Magnus much of their offense came from a variety of players. Maritza Rosemond helped her team build a lead with an early service ace. Krista Labissioniere whapped in an attack and the defense had no return, Nicole Acerra added a kill to the back court and later Isabel Lopez knocked the ball down at the net for another point, and Kelsey Pendagast had a big big block. On the following play Rosemond came up big with a defensive save, the ball was set out of bounds, she managed to raced after it and knock it backwards so a teammate could return it, and Acerra eventually spiked, popping the ball off the blockers and out of play. In the battle royale that occurred late as each side tried to scrap together a two point lead, Pendagast, Alyssa Puccilli and Melissa Manning all came up with kills including Manning’s which went through the blocking line.

Set 2 started out close, but while leading 12 to 9 Emmanuel went on a run that didn’t ended with them up 18 to 10 and that was basically that as the Saints took set 2 25-14.

Emmanuel’s offense included Rose striking early, Colby spiking the ball hard in front of the defenders, Alison Donnelly’s service ace launched the ball off a defender’s set attempt, Victoria came up big, as did Rose again, and Victoria added two more amidst a service ace from Logan.

Albertus gained points from many sources including Pendagast’s early block, and Rosemond tapped to the middle of the court as well, though this was a lower scoring set for the team.

Set 3 started going Emmanuel’s way early as they reached an 11 to 4 lead and didn’t look back, though the Falcons did battle back with a run of their own to lower the deficit to 6 when the Saints won 25 to 19.

Emmanuel’s scoring opened with Victoria, though Tutalo would smash an attack over for point 2, and Rose went cross court with her own attack. Colby sent a spike straight down the line and later smacked down an errant Albertus pass for another kill. Tutalo placed an attack in the back gap. As the set marched towards a conclusion Cara Callahan added some icing with a service ace, and Colby struck again. Katherine Campbell and Dudley each had a kill to put the team at 24 points; it would take awhile before Dudley placed the ball into a gap to end it.

Albertus offense included Pendagast sending a kill over from the net after Puccilli saved the play. Pendagast would later pick up another kill when she placed an attack into the back corner. Emily Matousek picked up her lone kill of the day early on, later Lily Dy whacked the ball in between the defense’s two lines to the floor. Jenna Dececchi contributed with a spike off the blockers and left out of play to cap off a long AM run. Acerra and Dececchi then came up with a pair of key saves to keep the ball alive and lead to an eventual point for the falcons. This culminated in Dececchi lunging out of bounds to knock the ball back. Albertus was down by a lot but during their final run, Pendagast picked up another kill, and Puccilli a service ace.

Statistically, (source Albertus Magnus Athletics), Rose lead Emmanuel with 10 kills, though among the top scores, Colby had a kill ratio of .545 with her six kills. Victoria had 7 kills and Logan 6. Donnelly had 24 assists. Callahan, Yun-Ting Lee, and Christine Durkee shared most of the digs. The team had two blocks on the day total shared among four players. Tutalo had 2 service aces of the team total of 6.

For Albertus Magnus, Pendagast had five kills to lead the team. Labissioniere had 19 assists, and 10 digs, Acerra had 11 digs, and Puccilli 10. Pendagast provided the team’s 3 blocks on the day as well.

Emmanuel is now 4-11 and Albertus Magnus 5-6.