Tough Night for Ithaca, Naz and SJFC
Oneonta 3, ITHACA 2
The Ithaca College volleyball team dropped a five-set match to visiting Oneonta by scores of 25-16, 22-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-13 on Tuesday night at Ben Light Gymnasium. It was the second time this season that Ithaca faced the Red Dragons and Oneonta has won both matches in five sets.
After Oneonta won the first set, Ithaca stormed back to win the second and third sets. The Bombers were 25-22 winners in the second set. Ithaca trailed 18-15 but scored three straight points. The set was tied 18-18, 19-19, and 20-20 before Ithaca closed by winning five of the last seven points and wrapped things up on a kill by
Joelle Goldstein. In the third set, Ithaca broke away with three service points from
Kayla Gromen and four from
Marlee Wierda to build a 21-13 lead and went on to the win.
Oneonta won by the minimum margins in the final two sets that were very evenly played. In the fifth set, Ithaca rallied from a deficit to tie the score at 13-13. Oneonta won the final two points and clinched the victory. The Red Dragons are 15-12 on the year and Ithaca is 20-7.
Goldstein led Ithaca with 14 kills, and Gromen had 39 assists. Gromen also served four aces and had 15 digs.
Caroline Gerulskis had two solo blocks and one block assist to go with 12 kills, and
Maggie Mutschler led Ithaca with 16 digs.
Buffalo State 3, NAZARETH 0
Visiting Buffalo State knocked off Nazareth in a three-set women's volleyball match Tuesday. Scores were 26-24, 25-23, 25-19. The Bengals avenged an earlier defeat as they improved to 19-9 overall, while the Golden Flyers lost for just the third time in the last 23 matches to drop to 20-7 overall.
Senior Kassandra Busek had a match-high 13 kills and went over the 1,000 mark in career kills. She ranks 10th all-time with 1,003 kills.
The Bengals, meanwhile, were more efficient with 36 kills overall against 11 hitting errors in 95 attempts for a .263 percentage overall. Nazareth hit .162 (43-24-117). The Bengals also had 10 blocks to just two for Nazareth, with Bengals' freshman Carolyn White accounting for six.
Nazareth had nine attacking errors in the first set, including five straight to start the match as Buffalo State prevailed by two points. Nazareth rallied behind six kills by Buseck to tie the set at 24-24, but the Bengals scored the last two points on a service error by
Cady Messmer and a ball-handling error by
Madi Wickens.
The second set was close throughout and also was tied at 23-23 before the Bengals scored the final two points, including the set-clinching point on a kill by Sam Parente.
Buffalo State broke away from a 14-14 tie to claim the third set. Hannah Renaldo had four kills and Parente added three more to finish with a team-high 10 for the match.
Jennifer Cecchettini had 20 assists and eight digs for the Bengals and Britt Hallett-Jonathan added 10 assists. In addition to Buseck,
Jennifer Hicks and
Olivia Harrigan each had eight kills for Nazareth. Wickens contributed 33 assists and
Maureen Thayer added 13 digs.
RIT 3, ST. JOHN FISHER 0
The St. John Fisher College volleyball team dropped a 3-0 decision to visiting Rochester Institute of Technology on Tuesday night in the Cardinals' home finale.
Fisher had its chances in the first two sets, but the Tigers pulled away in the closing moments. Fisher led 23-22 in the opening set, but R.I.T. rattled off three straight points to pick up the 25-23 win. In the second set, Fisher led 22-21 before the Tigers rallied for the 26-24 victory. In the third set, the score was tied at 17s before the Tigers (18-11) took the lead for good.
Paige Willson and
Anna Marcy led Fisher (9-19) with nine kills. Rojker added five kills as well. Freshman
Katie Mazierski was the only in double-digits in dig and tallied a team-high 20.
Madison Karwas led her team with two aces, while posting six kills. Setters
Erica Stickler (13) and
Brooke Meader (11) combined for 24 assists.