UNION, N.J. – The Pratt Institute women's volleyball suffered a straight-set defeat to Kean University (25-14, 25-7, 25-17) and a tough 3-1 loss to Misericordia University (25-19, 21-25, 26-24, 25-17) on Saturday afternoon at Harwood Arena.
Rose Moon accumulated 20 kills on the afternoon and Olivia Julich had 14 kills and nine blocks. Gabby Genduso handed out 39 assists across both matches.
The Cannoneers got off to a slow start in their opening match with Kean falling behind early and never able to recover in the opening two sets. After a back-and-forth start to the third set, Pratt trailed 12-10 before the Cougars distanced themselves with a 7-1 spurt.
Julich finished with team-highs of nine kills and three blocks. Moon chipped in seven kills. Deanna Colondona brought up a match-high 14 digs with Zeynep Akgol aiding the defense with 10 digs.
Morgan Hall led six different Cougars with multi-kill efforts landing nine kills.
Pratt battled against a 20-win Misericordia squad in match two of the day, but got off to a slow start again never leading in the opening set. The second stanza saw 12 ties and eight lead changes and despite falling on the wrong end of a 13-5 kill differential, the gold-and-black found a way to take the stanza using a 4-0 run after clinging to a 20-18 lead with Julich putting down two kills to spark the run and a Deanna Colondona kill to close out the set.
The Cannoneers rode the momentum of leveling the match and built a 20-16 lead and held two set points at 24-22, before being stunned by the Cougars who won the final four points of the frame for a 2-1 set lead.
Pratt led 11-7 in the fourth, before the Cougars surged out to a 20-14 advantage and stopped any hopes for a fifth-and-deciding set.
Moon paced Pratt with 13 kills and Colondona helped with eight kills and a team-high 22 digs. Genduso dished out 24 assists and fell one dig shy of a double-double. Julich chipped in five kills, three aces and six blocks.
Misericordia was led by Rachel LoFaso's 16 kills and Adele Decker's 11.
Pratt ends the regular season one game above .500 at 11-10 and heads to Fredericksburg, Virginia for the 2022 Coast-to-Coast Conference Women's Volleyball Championship hosted by the University of Mary Washington. First-round action begins on Friday, November 4th with tournament seeding and matchups still to be determined.
