MADISON, NJ (October 27, 2022)-- The King's College Monarchs women's volleyball team hit the road for one final time this season on Thursday night. They fell to the FDU-Florham Devils 3-0 in their MAC Freedom season finale. Despite the loss, the Monarchs hung into each of the three sets. King's drops to 17-10 overall on the season, 0-8 in MAC Freedom play. The Devils improve to 11-10, 4-4 against MAC Freedom opponents. 

The Monarchs got off to a fast start in the opening set, as they took a 6-3 lead. Adriana Conforti had both a kill and service ace right out of the gate. The team continued to take several leads early on. The opposition however, went on a punishing streak of eight points to take an 18-13 lead. In the end, the Devils scored five straight to take the first set 25-16. 

In the second set, it was the Devils who jumped out to an early lead of 6-1. But a service ace by Morgan Bryant and kill by Kathy Shepherd got them right back into things. The Monarchs tied things up at 11. Immediately following, the Devils had a 10-3 stretch which put the Monarchs down 21-14. FDU-Florham came away with a 25-17 win in the second set.

The third set was a thrilling one, with eight different ties. Needing to make something happen to keep the game alive, the Monarchs found themselves in an early 13-5 hole. They climbed back in thanks to kills by Theresa Lynch and Mia Campanile which sparked a 7-2 run. Down 19-13, the team had yet another strong stretch of 8-2, and pulled ahead 21-20. Shepherd continued her big night with four kills in the stretch. The teams traded points from there, as things came down to the wire. Tied up at 24, King's was able to take a couple of one point leads. This put them at the cusp of taking the set. But the Devils came out on top 28-26 to complete the sweep. 

As a team, the Monarchs tallied 34 kills, five service aces, 31 assists and 70 digs. Shepherd led the Monarchs with 13 kills followed by Campanile and Joy Kindall with five. Morgan Bryant served up three of the five aces. Conforti and Morgan Williams had the other two. Furthermore, Williams led the defense with a game-high 29 digs on the night. Devan Moses followed with 11 and Conforti had eight. Carly Shire recorded 16 assists. Keely Hoban had 12.

Sophomore Rachel Reiter led FDU-Florham with 12 kills, followed by first year Vanessa Freeman with nine and first year Gabbie Hart with eight. Sophomore Jada Everett had four service aces on the while graduate student Kacie Ros had 32 assists. Freeman led on defense with 16 digs. 

The Monarchs finish the season an even 5-5 on the road. They will wrap up their season at McGrane Gymnasium on Saturday as they will host their fourth tri-match.