(Manhattan, NY) On Saturday, the Tigers traveled to BMCC for their season opener.

The team came out ready playing clean, efficient volleyball building an early double digit lead. The first set was all FIT, 25-17. In the set, the team recorded 10 kills (8 of which were assisted), 15 digs and 2 aces, both served up by sophomore Christina Wong.

After the first set, BMCC made some adjustments to their attack and in doing so jumped out to an early leads in the second, third and fourth sets. The Tigers were not able to claw their way back into sets 2 or 3 loosing by scores of  14-25 and 16-25 respectively.

But FIT would not go down without a fight. After moutning a comeback halfway through the fourth set, the energy present in the first set returned and energized the team. The Tigers fueled by a string of tough serves by sophomore Vanessa Bennish took the lead 21-17. BMCC fought back to tie the match at 23 and take possession of the serve. Despite BMCC serving into the net  and giving the Tigers set point and the serve two times in a row, the Tigers were unable to capitalize on the opportunities and put the set away, losing the set 25-27 and the match 3 sets to 1

Top Tiger offensive performers of the day were co-captain Arpi Dayian (8 kills, 8 digs, and  11 assists) and sophomore Vanessa Bennish (10 kills, 5 digs) while sophomores Hannah Edwards (17 digs) and Christina Wong (10 digs) led the strong defensive effort.

"We open the season against a much improved region rival in BMCC. From this loss, we realize the areas we need to work on.  But I am proud of the way we played in the first set and the fight we showed in the fourth set. I look forward to our upcoming trip to face some tough non-region competition next weekend. We will return stronger and closer as a team, prepared for our next regional match ups the following weekend." - head coach Keith Heron