West Haven, Conn. | The third-seeded LIU Post volleyball team saw its 2017 season come to an end on Thursday afternoon with a defeat to sixth-seeded American International College in the first round of the NCAA Volleyball Championship.
The Pioneers, who reached the NCAA Championship Tournament for the fifth time in six years, finished the year with a 28-5 record.
Falling behind early, LIU Post trailed 18-15 in the first set but rallied for six of the next eight points to tie the game 21-21. A 3-1 run by the Yellow Jackets put AIC on the brink of victory (24-22) and Jana Potic clinched the first-set win for AIC with a kill.
The second set featured a tightly-contested battle with neither side leading by more than two until AIC sparked a 3-0 run to gain a 20-17 advantage over the Pioneers. The green and gold quickly responded with a 6-1 run to take the 23-21 lead. Up 23-24, Danielle Valenza smacked her ninth kill of the game to take the second-set victory for LIU Post.
After capturing the 25-23 victory in the second set, the Pioneers harnessed that momentum and used it in the third where they'd go up 16-11 midway through the frame. A 10-4 run by AIC brought the set to within two points (24-22), but LIU Post fended off the Yellow Jackets and earned a 25-22 win to go up 2-1 in the match.
The two teams found themselves in another neck-and-neck battle with both sides knotted at 12 points. The Yellow Jackets were able to string together an 8-3 run to take a five-point advantage over LIU Post, 20-15. The Pioneers then came within three points of AIC but a Yellow Jacket kill and service ace brought the match level 2-2, to force the fifth and deciding set.
The green and gold saw themselves trailing early, 8-6, but were able to tie the match 10-10, before the Yellow Jackets answered back with a 4-1 spurt. One point away from elimination, the Pioneers fought back with a 5-0 run and were just one point away from advancing to the second round (15-14). However, after an AIC timeout, the Yellow Jackets took advantage of a service error and tacked on back-to-back kills to down LIU Post 17-15.
Junior Kristin Bendy led the Pioneers with 18 kills in the match, while classmate Rachel Londot and senior Danielle Valenza contributed with 14 and 12 kills, respectively.
Londot and Valenza were each credited with a team-best 20 digs. Senior libero Indira Rojas collected 19 digs.
Sophomore Kassie Akouri-Tejedor dished out 36 assists, while Guilia Genna tossed up 28.
This concludes the 2017 season for the Pioneers' volleyball team. For more information on LIU Post volleyball, please continue to visit LIUPostPioneers.com.