Ithaca Volleyball Headed To Empire 8 Final After Dispatching RIT 3-1
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The volleyball team (21-14) advanced to the Empire 8 Championship Tournament final, beating Rochester Institute of Technology (22-16), 3-1 (25-20, 25-20, 23-25, 25-21). The top-seeded Bombers will face third-seeded Elmira at 7 p.m. with the Empire 8's automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs on the line. Elmira beat Nazareth 3-1 in Friday's second semifinal.
The Bombers will vie for their fourth Empire 8 crown in the championship match having most recently won out in 2005.
Ithaca opened the match with five unanswered points and went on to claim an 8-1 lead before the Tigers brought the match to 10-7. That was as close as the visiting squad would get as the Bombers reinstated a seven-point gap and maintained the lead to take the first set, 25-20.
The second stint finished with the same outcome but featured six lead changes and 10 knotted scores. Ithaca claimed the set’s first point on a kill by junior Chelsea Hayes (Northern Valley Regional/Haworth, N.J.) but the Tigers went on to take a 6-3 lead. Ithaca surged to force an 8-8 tie, but RIT kept a step ahead until the Blue and Gold reclaimed the advantage at 14-12 on a Tiger attack error.
The score would again flip-flop and RIT regained the advantage at 17-16 and maintained it for a 20-19 edge. But Ithaca would outscore the Tigers, 9-3, down the stretch to take a 2-0 series lead.
The third frame opened in RIT’s favor and stayed that way. Ithaca was able to bring the match to a 16-16 deadlock, but the Tigers held off a surging Ithaca for a 25-23 third-set victory.
The match’s final set saw eight ties but only two lead changes as the Bombers held strong to claim the fourth and final game and in turn earned a berth to the 2010 Empire 8 championship match. After a 7-7 stalemate, Ithaca went up by four, 11-7, before the Tigers again knotted the set at 13. The Bombers pulled ahead before RIT responded for the final tie of the match at 19-19. Three Ithaca kills and three Tiger errors helped the Bombers claim the semifinal battle with a 25-21 final-set score.
Junior Kate Thoene (Voorhees/High Bridge, N.J.) tallied a match-high 15 kills and was one of three Bombers to tally double-digit performances. Thoene, who secured a team-high .344 hitting percentage, was joined by Jessica Hoeffner(Hauppauge/Hauppauge) who added 13 and 11, respectively. Behind their offensive efforts were setters Sydney Folk (Long Beach/Long Beach) and Marissa Woodcome (Pittsford Sutherland/Pittsford). The pair dished out 23 and 18 assists, respectively, helping the Bombers to their second Empire 8 championship match appearance in as many years.
Defensively, Tina Orlandini (Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy/Altadena, Calif.) recorded a match-high 21 digs on the day to move within 95 digs of Ithaca’s all-time career record as the senior has tallied 1,836. Senior Taylor Horton (Lakeridge/Lake Oswego, Ore.) also contributed double-digit digs for the Bombers with 14.