Elmira Spikes Past St. Joseph’s in ECAC Quarterfinals
Elmira, NY – The Elmira College Women’s Volleyball team defeated visiting St. Joseph’s (LI) 3-0 (25-13, 25-21, 25-20) Wednesday evening in the quarterfinal round of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournament. The win improves the Soaring Eagles to 26-8 overall, while the loss drops the Golden Eagles to 14-11 overall.
The Purple and Gold got out to a good start, cruising to a 25-13 first set victory. Trailing 14-11 in the second set Elmira battled back to take a 21-19 lead. The Golden Eagles scored once to bring the deficit to one, but EC proved to be too much as it prevailed 25-21. The Soaring Eagles held on to close out the match in straight sets despite a gritty St. Josephs squad.
Leading the Soaring Eagles were Brittany Raykoske ’12 (Johnstown, NY -- Gloversville) with 15.5 points, Sasha Zavadska ’13 (Bratislava, SVK -- The British School) with 11.5 points and Amanda Matson ’13 (Corning, NY -- Corning West) with 8.5 points. Also making good contributions to the team were Taryn Rumsey ’14 (Mansfield, PA -- Mansfield), Abbie Martin ’14 (Broadalbin, NY – Broadalbin-Perth), Jessica Hull ’15 (Ypsilanti, MI -- Milan), Molly Short ’13 (Sterling, CO -- Sterling), Catherine Miller ’13 (Pittsburg, PA -- Penn Hills), Kierra LaForge ’15 (Wellsboro, PA -- Wellsboro), Francene Cicia ’13 (Sunderland, MA -- Frontier Regional) and Melanie Pershyn ’13 (Lakeview, NY -- Frontier). Rumsey, Martin and Hull combined for eight kills, one ace and 13 digs. Short and Miller combined for two kills, 15 assists, two aces, nine digs and three blocks. LaForge, Cicia and Pershyn combined for one kill, 17 assists, four aces, and 12 digs.
With the win, and being the number one seed, EC earns the right to host the ECAC Semifinals and Final this Saturday. The semifinals are slated for 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., with the winners to play for the championship title at 5:00 p.m. There will be no admission charge for these events