FAIRFAX, Va. – The George Mason women's volleyball team ended the 2023 season on a positive note, downing Fordham 3-0 on Senior Day.
The Patriots finish the season at 5-13 in the Atlantic 10 and 9-21 overall. The nine wins are the most since 2018 when the Patriots won 10 games.
On offense, the Patriots were led by the junior pair of
Ewelina Gacek and
Olyvia Kennedy, who both tallied double-figure kills. Gacek notched a game-high 15 kills to go with 11 digs for her fourth double-double of the season. Kennedy tallied 13 kills with just two errors for a .355 clip, including set point in both set one and two.
After the Rams (17-11, 8-10) scored the first point of set one, the Patriots were able to pull ahead with three-straight kills. Fordham never trailed by more than two, until back-to-back 3-0 runs from Mason pushed it ahead by five, 19-14 on a service ace from senior
Grace Kristofic. Mason held on to the lead and Kennedy's fourth kill of the set gave it the 25-21 win.
The second set was a back-and-forth affair, featuring 13 ties and four lead changes. With the score tied at 10-all, Fordham strung together a 4-0 run with four kills. The Patriots battled back with a 4-0 run of their own leading to the final tie at 20-20. Back-to-back kills from Gacek pushed the lead to two, and solid defense from Mason held off any comeback from the Rams as another Kennedy kill led to a 25-22 victory.
The Patriots came out swinging in the third set, going on a 7-1 run led by five kills from Gacek to jump out to a 9-2 lead. However, Fordham would slowly battle back, going on several runs down the stretch to eventually tie get within one, 24-23. Facing match point, the Rams tallied back-to-back kills to put the pressure on Mason and tie the set at 25-25. A timeout reset the Patriots and a kill from Kennedy gave Mason back match-point and
Caroline Rodriguez ended a long rally with a kill to give Mason to 3-0 victory in extra points.
PATRIOT POINTS
- In her final collegiate volleyball match, Gracie Halley tallied 13 digs to bring her season total to 468, etching her name into the Mason record books with the second-most single season digs in program history
- Freshman Autumn-Martinez Robinson led the Patriots with a career-high 15 digs to lead the back row
- Gabriella Gelfound also tallied a double-double on the day, notching a game-high 27 assists with 11 digs
- The middle pair of Chelsea Colter and Camille Larkin led the Patriots at the net with efficiency as they both hit at at .5000. Colter tallied seven kills to go with four blocks and Larkin notched six kills, a block and a dig
- In her final match, Grace Kristofic dished out 14 assists to go with eight digs, a kill and a service ace
