MADISON, N.J.—Gordon Volleyball ran its record to 3-1 during its New Jersey road trip with a split of matches on Saturday. The Fighting Scots dropped its first match of the day to host Fairleigh Dickinson-Florham in straight sets before surviving another five-setter against New Rochelle.
 
Gordon improves to 5-5 to begin the season with conference play quickly approaching.
 
The Fighting Scots never let any set get away from them, but the Devils won a few big points to turn the first two sets in their favor. Gordon had a chance to even things in the second set after battling back to tie things at 23 points, but a couple of errors led to a 25-23 defeat.
 
Mackenzie Hinds (Higganum, Conn.) and Carleigh Petersen (North Hills, Calif.) led the Scots with eight kills apiece. Renee Cooprider (Hopkinton, Mass.) had 29 assists and Maggie Risma (Hudson, Ohio) nabbed 17 digs in the loss.
 
Gordon's second match of the day followed a similar trajectory as its win over Montclair State on Friday. Three of the five sets were decided by only two points in a 27-25, 29-31, 20-25, 26-24, 15-11 victory. The Fighting Scots' offense contributed 19 more points than the Blue Angels, but 33 errors kept New Rochelle in games.
 
Hinds and Petersen combined to be the catalysts of the Gordon offense once again with identical lines of 19 kills. Petersen also had two service aces.
 
Cooprider and fellow freshman Sidney Eisler (Stockton, Calif.) combined for 51 assists in the match. Jenna Labbadia (Berlin, Conn.) had a career high seven service aces to lead Gordon in that category. Risma had a status quo game of 26 digs to keep her per-game average over five.
 
Gordon will look to get above .500 for the first time since the opener when they head to Lesley on Wednesday at 8 p.m.