Two E8 Wins for Ithaca, Naz and Stevens
ITHACA
The Ithaca College women's volleyball team went undefeated in Empire 8 action at Hartwick, sweeping both Hartwick and St. John Fisher on Saturday. The Bombers improved their overall record to 10-3 on the year and 3-0 in conference play. In Saturday's 11 a.m. match, Ithaca defeated Hartwick in three sets, 25-22, 27-25, 25-12. The Bombers went on to take a three-set match from St. John Fisher, 25-14,25-16,25-18.
Ithaca 3, Hartwick 0
The first set was evenly matched with Ithaca and Hartwick going point for point for a majority of game play. Ithaca took the largest lead of the set with four points, leading by a score of 12-8. Ithaca led by four points just one other time in the set at 24-20 after an attack error by Hartwick. The Bombers finished off the first set with a service ace by
Rylie Bean and another attack error by Hartwick. The second set was fairly close as well, forcing the Bombers to earn 27 points for the win. Ithaca sealed the last two points of the second set with a kill by
Joelle Goldstein and a service ace by Bean. The Bombers ran away with the match in the third set by earning a game-high five points in a row, off of two kills by Bean, one by Dylan Gawinski-Stern and two Hawk errors.
Bean led the Bombers with 11 kills. Goldstein put away 10 kills on the Hartwick Hawks.
Kayla Gromen tallied 30 assists for Ithaca, while Bean and
Marlee Wierda each added one assist for the Bombers.
Gromen led the team in digs with 23 and
Maggie Mutschler recorded 14 digs.
Ithaca 3, St. John Fisher 0
In the first set against St. John Fisher, the Bombers never gave up a lead. After three early kills by
Rylie Bean,
Joelle Goldstein and
Caroline Gerulskis, Ithaca ran with the three point lead to go on and win 25-14. Fisher started off the second set with a two point lead. After going back and forth the score was tied at 8-8, until two Cardinal errors and a kill by Bean gave Ithaca an 11-8 lead. Ithaca stayed ahead for the rest of the set, sealing the game with another kill by Bean and an error by Fisher. Ithaca started and ended strong in the third set, scoring four or more points in a row on four separate occasions. After being tied 14-14, Ithaca outscored St. John Fisher 11-4 sealing the match with a score of 25-18. The Bombers kept the Cardinals below 20 points in all three sets of the match.
Bean once again led Ithaca with 11 kills on 19 attempts, while Goldstein added nine kills on 18 attempts. Gerulskis also tallied six kills and
Katie Hartman gave the bombers three points on three kills, totaling 37 kills for Ithaca.
Maggie Mutschler recorded 10 digs, while
Kayla Gromen added six for the Bombers. Bean recorded a solo block for the Bombers as well.
NAZARETH
Host Nazareth made short work of a pair of Empire 8 Conference volleyball opponents Saturday at the Kidera Gymnasium. The Golden Flyers defeated Alfred and Utica by identical 3-0 scores. Match scores vs. Alfred were 25-10, 25-16, 26-24. Against Utica, Nazareth won 25-15, 25-14, 25-10.
Utica also defeated Alfred in three sets in an afternoon match by scores of
25-21, 25-22, 25-19. Nazareth improved to 10-5 overall and 2-0 in the Empire 8. Alfred is 3-10, 0-2 and Utica left Nazareth at 6-6 and 1-1.
The Golden Flyers posted a .409 hitting percentage (48-10-93) against Alfred. Senior
Maria Allocco hit .722 (13-0-18) and junior
Jennifer Hicks went 9-2-11 for a .636 percentage. Senior
Olivia Harrigan added 12 kills in 22 attempts for a .455 percentage. Sophomore
Madi Wickens had 21 assists and six adigs and sophomore
Maureen Thayer contributed five service aces.
Hicks had six kills in as many attempts to carry Nazareth in the first set, then Allocco and Harrigan each had four kills in the second set with senior
Katherine Race had six of her match-high 10 digs. Harrigan then hit 7-2-11 in the third set as Nazareth prevailed. Alfred had taken a 23-22 lead late in the third set, but Nazareth got a pair of kills from Harrigan, one from Allocco and a service ace from Thayer to close out the match.
Against Utica, Buseck had 11 kills on 21 swings and Allocco had nine kills and four blocks. Nazareth had 22 service aces overall against the Pioneers with sophomore
Rachel Williamson accounting for seven herself. Race and Hicks each had four.
STEVENS
The Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball team picked up a pair of Empire 8 Conference victories on Saturday in Canavan Arena to improve its overall record to 10-3 and Empire 8 mark to 3-0.
The Ducks took down Elmira College in straight sets to begin the tri-match and then battled with Houghton College in a five-set thriller that lasted over two hours.
Stevens 3, Elmira 0
Katie Hall paced Stevens with eight kills, four blocks, four digs and two aces, while hitting .429 overall. Christina Sciarra hit .600 on six kills in 10 swings, while Mary Tobin notched five, and Annemarie Thomas, Ashley Castillo and Kristen Herchenroder each had four.
Castillo was perfect in attacks and handed out 13 assists. Catie Shelton dished out 15 assists in two sets to propel the offense. Horner recorded 10 digs which was a match-best.
Stevens hit .364 overall in the match and committed just eight errors in 77 attempts with 38 kills, while Elmira swung at just a .058 percentage.
Stevens 3, Houghton 2
The Ducks found themselves in a highly contested match to conclude the afternoon at home against the Highlanders. The conference foes traded set victories, 26-24, 23-25, 25-16, 23-25, 20-18, throughout the contest and were tied on 35 separate occasions.
Stevens finished the match with 77 kills and a .242 hitting percentage to go along with 89 digs and 10 total blocks. Houghton countered with 102 digs, 54 kills, eight aces and seven blocks.
Individually, seven Ducks posted remarkable performances.
Castillo set a new school single-match record with 63 assists and added 12 digs. Horner shattered her previous career-best mark in digs with 40, while Tobin notched a match-high 24 kills on a .323 hitting percentage and 15 digs.
The 63 helpers from Castillo, along with an additional nine from three others also set a new school standard for a single-match record.
Sciarra was close behind in the kills department with 23 and swung at .367 clip which was a match-high. She also tallied five block assists and scored 26.5 points. Evans reached double digits in kills and digs with 16 and 10, respectively.
Hall completed her afternoon with eight kills, three aces and two block assists for 12 points, and chipped in three digs and two assists. Thomas put down seven block assists and one solo with four kills.
Four of the five sets were nail-biters, but it all came down to the decisive fifth set. After the Ducks led, 10-9, Houghton scored four of the next five points to push the match to near decision at 13-11. Sciarra and Tobin pounded down back-to-back kills to tie things up at 13, but the Highlanders scored next to set up one of their five match points in the set.
Houghton held match-point from 14-13 all the way to 18-17. Each time the Ducks faced defeat, they came up with crucial kills – two from Evans and one apiece from Tobin and Sciarra.
Once the match reached its 35th tie at 18-18 in the fifth set, Thomas and Sciarra turned away the Highlanders at the net with consecutive blocks to secure victory.