LOUDONVILLE, NY – Siena head volleyball coach
Simone Asque-Favia said during Friday's ESPN media session that the team has shown encouraging signs as it relates to putting in the work and spending that extra time on the court that will be needed to grow.
Siena (2-14, 2-4 MAAC) returns home to the UHY Center for a pair of conference tests against one team that directly in front of them in the conference standings in Iona (7-10, 3-3 MAAC) on Saturday and another that it leads in Manhattan (3-14, 1-5 MAAC) on Sunday.
Both matches are set for a 2 p.m. start with Saturday's match featured on Siena All-Access with Joseph Lemery on the call and Sunday's matinee on ESPN+ featuring the play-by-play from Emmanuel Berbari and James Hosley on color commentary.
Discussing the eagerness of the players on the team, coach Asque-Favia had this to say about it:
"I want the whole team like that and what's great is that we're starting to get there," said Asque-Favia.
"I want players who come in and want to learn and who want to pull resources from the coaching staff. We started seeing that last year and now even more so this year. Top to bottom, the whole group is very eager to get better and do something about it. There are times in practice when we're doing serve and pass drills and they'll say, 'Wait. One more serve. We want to do one more.' And, I'll have to say, 'Guys, we have to go home'."
Siena leads the all-time series with Iona 36-18 and also holds a 38-20 all-time advantage against Manhattan.
The Saints split last season's series with the Gaels last season, but swept Iona in New Rochelle last Oct. 23.
Siena won both meetings with the Jaspers last season including sweeps in Loudonville last Sept. 18 and in Riverdale last Oct. 22.
Leading the Saints in kills are junior outside hitter
Sara Wagner (149 kills, 2.76 kills per set on a .134 hitting percentage and junior right side
Olga Sawinska (112 kills, 2.07 kills per set on a .161 hitting percentage).
Injuries has caused the Saints to shuffle their setters throughout the season.
Freshman
Oliwia Majtyka (131 assists, 3.36 assists per set) has taken over the team lead in passing, however, junior
Claire Isaksen returned to the lineup two weeks ago and has averaged 19.3 assists per match over her prior three outings.
Isaksen has 120 assists accounting for 3.87 assists per set on the year.
Senior
Meghan Johnsson has been very involved as well with 129 assists and 3.39 assists per set.
Defensively, Sawinska now leads the Saints in blocks with 37.0 total blocks (0.69 blocks per set).
The liberos on the team have had a competitive battle for playing time with freshman
Payton Hinkle beginning to emerge as the top playmaker, having recorded double-digit digs in six of the previous seven outings.
The Brownsburg, IN native leads the Saints with 95 digs and 2.57 digs per set.
Sophomore libero
Emily Wood is next with 77 digs (1.88 digs per set).
"The liberos on our team have been fighting and clawing," said coach Asque-Favia.
"It's a great problem that her (Wood) and Payton (Hinkle) are neck and neck. I love it when they're playing hard because it's made them better."
The Gaels are led by sophomore outside hitter Mackenzie Wiggins, who ranks fourth in the MAAC in kills per set with 3.31.
The 5-foot-10 native of Corpus, Christi, TX also ranks second in kills with 205, only behind MAAC Preseason Player of the Year in Marist's Sasha Van der Merve.
Running primarily a 6-2 offense, Iona has nearly split duties between senior Tamara Pichardo (242 assists, 5.50 assists per set) and graduate student Samantha Juran (236 assists, 6.05 assists per set).
Iona also sports arguably far and away the conference's best libero as senior Hope Matschner has built a huge lead for the digs crown with 402 digs for an average of 6.59 digs per set this season.
The next closest in the category is Canisius' Jullian Hanna with 196 digs.
Ezzie Thompson is the Gaels' top protector at the net with 36.0 total blocks (.065 blocks per set).
As for the Jaspers, they've seen a fast rise from freshman Mikalah Curran, who has taken the team lead in kills with 132 and averages 2.93 kills per set.
The Commack, NY native ranks ninth in the MAAC in points per set with 3.12.
Ranking third in the conference in assists is senior Sarah Emmons, who has totaled 376 assists and 6.84 assists per set. She also has 24 aces.
On the defensive side, Elenoa Sing and Abby Morreale have tallied 26.0 total blocks apiece as the co-leaders of Manhattan.
Dominique Velarde, a transfer from Call State Fullerton has specialized in the first touch approach with 120 digs and 2.40 digs per set.
Fans can also follow along via live stats and on-site social media updates by following Siena Volleyball for live updates on X (formerly Twitter) account @SienaVB.
