North Branch, NJ – The RVCC Women's volleyball team defeated Ocean County College by a final score of 3-1 on Monday night. The win is the second for RVCC over Ocean County this season as the Lions topped the Vikings in Toms River a little less than a month ago by the same score. With the victory RVCC improves to 18-3 overall.
The Lions were pushed to the limit early in the first set as Ocean County's hitters kept finding open spots on the floor. Additionally, the defense of the Vikings was not letting many of RVCC's hard hit balls drop which caused for many long rallies. Eventually the Vikings would take the hard fought first set 25-19.
The first few points of the second set were back and forth until Skylee Ohler stepped to the service line. Ohler, and the Lions' defense, would take a 15-5 lead that made a hole too big for the Vikings to climb out of. The defense during the run was led by Alanna Da Cunha and Reagan Mooney up front. The pair each registered a solo block on the night, but it was their constant pressure that caused the powerful Vikings offense to falter. With the threat of a big block looming, the Vikings offense was unable to play as aggressively which allowed the Lions' defense to help set up their attack. The Lions would go on to win the second set 25-20.
Again, the Lions came out in attack mode going up 11-2 in the third set. The final score of 25-20 was not indicative of how much the Lions actually controlled the set, but more so a show of resiliency by the Vikings.
With the Lions holding onto a two-point lead at 22-20 the Vikings were making a comeback. A well received serve from Sona Petrusova gave Reagan Mooney the chance to set Madison Cobb in the middle. Cobb notched her 10th kill of the night with a tip that the Viking defense wasn't ready to handle. On the next point the Vikings would send the ball out of bounds before calling a timeout. On the final point of the night Danna Gaitan dove to save a Viking attacked ball from hitting the floor. The Lions were able to use the ball to set up a Kelly Delaney kill from the back row to end the game.
Delaney finished with another monster double double as she led the team in both kills (12) and digs (21). Cobb was the only other Lion in double figures with 10 kills, but Gaitan had 6 and Da Cunha finished with 5. Sona Petrusova was a staple for the Lions on defense, finishing with 17 digs. Mooney was solid again in leading the Lions' offense with 28 assists. The Lions' defense was instrumental in the win as Cobb and Ohler each had 3 solo blocks. Ohler also had 3 block assists while Cobb finished with 2 and Da Cunha had 1.
The Lions return to action on Wednesday night when they travel to take on the Buccaneers from Atlantic Cape Community College at 6 PM.