LAKEWOOD, N.J. (Oct. 6, 2022) - Georgian Court Women's Volleyball hung with second-place Jefferson for most of the evening, but it wasn't enough in a four-set loss. Two of the three Lions set losses were by five points or less as they kept things close throughout most of the match. In the end the Rams were able to pick up the 3-1 win, 23-25, 11-25, 25-21, 20-25.

How it Happened
• Jefferson hit .220 for the match while the Lions attack percentage just topped .100 at .104.
• Georgian Court did land six more kills than the Rams, 51-46, but also hit into double the attack errors, 36-18.
• Each team picked up a number of points on the serve, Jefferson with eight and the Lions six.
• The Rams put back 11 blocks while the Lions secured just five. GCU picked up more digs than the Rams, 56-43.
• Jefferson's sideout percentage was above 50% in all four sets. The Lions matched them in three of four getting above 50%, but sided-out just 20% of the time in set two.
• Set one was the closest of the five with the Lions falling by just two, 25-23. Despite the close score, the Lions never led in the set. Tied at three, the Rams went on a 7-1 run to take their largest lead, 10-4, and force a GCU timeout. They pushed that lead all the way to a set-high nine, 15-6 before the Lions started to comeback. 
• The Lions started to chip away, getting the Ram lead back down to six, 21-15. They then took advantage of two attack errors and an Ava Venneri kill brought GCU all the way back to within one, 21-20. A block from Nylene Mateo and Amiyah Woods saved set point once, but Jess Molen put the set away with her seventh kill of the frame.
• Set two started out with some back-and-forth and GCU even held a lead at 7-4. The Rams though finished the frame on a 21-4 run, including score 15 straight at one point. GCU hit more errors in the set, nine, than they did kills, six, and the Rams went up two sets to none.
• Georgian Court was able to brush off that second set in quick fashion. Set three featured seven ties and two lead changes but the Lions held their ground. Jefferson led 7-5, but a 4-2 spurt, helped out by consecutive kills from Woods tied the set at nine-all. From there, the Lions scored four straight to take their largest lead, 13-9, and force Jefferson to call timeout.
• The Lions held the lead until the Rams tied the set at 19 on a service ace. GCU though scored six of the final eight points, getting five kills from Mateo to stay alive with a 25-21 win. Mateo totaled nine kills in the set and the Lions scored 15 points on kills.
• Georgian Court held a slight lead throughout much of set four. Mateo rattled off back-to-back service aces to put the Lions up four, 8-4. The lead didn't last long however, as a 5-1 Jefferson run tied things at nine apiece. GCU regained the lead only for the Rams to tie again at 14-14.
• Jefferson then used a 5-2 run to go up three, 19-16, as GCU needed to call timeout. GCU got back to within two following the timeout, but the Rams scored three straight on a block, kill and service ace to go up five, and went on to win by that margin, 25-20. 

Lion Stat Leaders
• Nylene Mateo finished with a match-high 22 kills and added two aces, seven digs and two blocks.
• Chelsea Ross and Amiyah Woods each landed eight kills.
• Iciar Zayas recorded a double-double with 30 assists and 10 digs.
• Jana Borkovic corralled a match-high 18 digs while adding nine assists.
• Jessica Sprankle scored three service aces and added 11 digs. 
• Ava Venneri helped out with seven kills.

For the Rams
• Jess Molen picked up 15 kills with seven digs.
• Sam Mann added 11 kills and hit .409 with eight blocks.
• Kristine Guenther passed out 40 assists and added eight digs.
• Cameron Johnson led the team with 10 digs.
• Liv Erwin scored three service aces and scooped up eight digs.

News and Notes
• Nylene Mateo put back her 70th career block. This was also her fourth match this season with at least 20 kills. 
• Iciar Zayas is up over 150 digs for the season.
• Jessica Sprankle moved up to 16th all-time at GCU in service aces with 97.
• This was GCU's seventh straight match with at least five service aces.
• Jana Borkovic has reached double-digit digs in six straight matches.

Up Next
• The Lions will hit the road again Saturday, October 8 as they take on Bridgeport at 12 p.m.