Volleyball Win Streak Snapped By Robert Morris, 3-1

BROOKLYN, N.Y.— The LIU Brooklyn volleyball team had its 10-game winning streak come to a close on Saturday afternoon, falling to Robert Morris 3-1 (25-13, 23-25, 25-27, 26-28) at the Steinberg Center. The Blackbirds are now 13-7 overall and 10-1 in Northeast Conference play and conclude regular season play at home with an 7-3 record.

LIU had three players with double-digit kills in the game, with senior Viktoria Fink leading the way with 16 kills. Graduate Alex Lilliquist and junior Julia Azevedo both added 11 kills. Lilliquist and sophomore Piper Matsumoto tallied double-doubles for the second straight game as Lilliquist recorded a team-high 14 digs on top of her 11 kills and Matsumoto dished out 32 assists to go with 10 digs. Junior Filippa Hansson led LIU with three blocks and junior Natalia Rivera added 14 digs.

Carrying over momentum from last night's straight set sweep over Saint Francis, the Blackbirds stormed out to a 11-2 start led by three kills from Fink and a flurry of RMU errors. LIU would continue to hold its distance over the Colonials with an 8-3 stetch led by block assists from Azevedo, Fink, Hansson and Lilliquist to go ahead 19-16. LIU earned the 25-13 opening set win on a RMU service error.

The Blackbirds continued to play well to start the second set with a 8-3 opening stretch on a pair of kills from Hansson and service aces by Hansson and Lilliquist. The Colonials would not back down eventually working back to a 15-15 draw. Back-and-forth play ensued with with six ties and seven lead changes the rest of the way. LIU would hold a 23-21 set lead before RMU closed the set on three errors by the Blackbirds for the 25-23 second set win.

Both teams continued to trade shots at the lead to start the third set working to a 10-10 standstill. LIU would go on a four-point run to jump ahead 14-10 on a pair of kills from sophomore Jovan Stekovic and a few RMU errors. The Blackbirds lead would hold for the majority of the set, eventually getting to within set point at 24-22. But it was the visiting team that would climb back and earn the 27-25 third set win.

RMU would hold the lead early in the fourth set with a 12-9 start on five LIU errors. The Blackbirds would grab six of the next eight points to take a 15-14 set lead on two kills from Fink. Both teams continued to hold the slight lead before a three-point run gave LIU the 21-19 lead. The Colonials worked back to tie the set on a pair of set point chances for the Blackbirds. The visitors would end the match on two-straight points to earn the set 28-26 set win to take the match.

UP NEXT

The Blackbirds conclude the 2018 regular season the next two weeks on the road. LIU will travel across town to take on St. Francis Brooklyn on Friday, November 2 for a 4:00 p.m. match.

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