E8 Volleyball Teams go 7-4 Friday Night
NAZARETH
Nazareth secured its first women's volleyball victory of the 2014 season Friday as the Golden Flyers defeated Buffalo State in four sets in their first match of the Golden Flyer Invitational at the Kidera Gymnasium. Scores were 25-23, 11-25, 25-20, 25-19. A few hours later, Nazareth claimed its second victory with a three-set sweep of Fredonia with the scores of 25-21, 25-21, 25-20.
Against Buffalo State, senior
Olivia Harrigan combined a match-high 16 kills with 14 digs and senior
Maria Allocco posted a .481 hitting percentage (15-2-27). Sophomore
Madi Wickens added 49 assists and 14 digs and sophomore libero
Maureen Thayer amassed 29 digs.
Against Fredonia, Allocco, Jennifer Hicks, and Kassandra Buseck finished the match with .533, .500, and .320 hitting percentages, respectively. Wickens amassed a match-high 37 assists to direct Nazareth's efficient attack.
Defensively, Thayer recorded a match-high 20 digs to thwart several Fredonia attempts. Hicks and Buseck each had a solo and an assisted block at the net.
ST. JOHN FISHER
The St. John Fisher College volleyball team rallied to win the final two sets and earned a 3-2 victory over Russell Sage College in its first game of the University of Rochester Invitational on Friday.
The Cardinals lost two of the the first three sets and trailed 11-7 in the fifth and final game, but managed to pull out the win.
Freshman
Anna Marcy led the way for the Cardinals, tallying a career-high 16 kills, eight digs and four blocks. Classmate
Amanda Miller led Fisher with six blocks.
Senior
Paige Willson finished with 11 kills and four blocks, while freshman
Madison Karwas totaled nine kills and six digs.
Erin Crandall (15) and
Jordan DeMartino (10) both finished in double-digits in digs, while setter
Erica Stickler dished out a team-high 35 assists.
STEVENS
The Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball team ran its winning streak to five matches with a sweep of Westfield State College on Friday at the Springfield College Tournament.
Stevens (5-1) also swept its fourth consecutive opponent, 25-21, 25-16, 25-15, and hit .204 in the contest with seven service aces. In the first set, the Ducks swung at a .405 clip with 17 kills on two errors and 37 attempts. The Ducks have also posted at least seven aces in each match this year.
Freshman
Brianna Evans picked up her second collegiate double-double with 13 digs and 12 kills on Friday evening. Evans' 12 kills paced Stevens, while her 13 digs finished second. Junior
Annemarie Thomas produced a .444 hitting percentage on nine kills and 18 swings to lead all players and added a block, while sophomore
Christina Sciarra contributed five kills (.306 hitting percentage) six digs, three aces and a block. Senior
Ashley Castillo dished out 24 assists to go along with four digs, two kills and one block. Leading the way defensively, freshman
Sydni Horner chipped in 17 digs for her fourth double-digit effort of the season.
ALFRED
The Alfred University women's volleyball team claimed a 3-0 victory over Chatham Friday night in the Saxons' opening match at the LaRoche College Tournament.
AU (2-3) won by scores of 25-6, 29-27 and 25-10. Freshman
Chelsea Pietrzykowski (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) had nine kills, three service aces and four digs and freshman
Aubrey Totsline (Rochester, NY/Fairport) had 20 assists to pace the Saxons.
Freshman
Jacquelynn Hicks (Greenville, NY/Greenville) had eight kills and junior
Brianna Dudick (Somers, NY/Somers) had 10 kills and a block for AU.
ELMIRA
On the first day of the University of Rochester Tournament, the Elmira College women's volleyball team (1-2) split matches, dropping the first match to Penn State Behrend (3-0, 25-14, 25-13, 25-15) before sweeping Skidmore College (3-0, 25-22, 25-19, 25-22). For Elmira, tonight's win over Skidmore marked EC's first win of the 2014 season.
Elmira suffered a 3-0 loss in the opening match of the University of Rochester Tournament to Penn State Behrend. The Soaring Eagles struggled on offense, connecting on 24 of 91 attack attempts.
Paola Ortiz '16 registered a team-high seven kills while
Sami Hanes '16 setup the Elmira offense with 20 assists. Defensively,
Kelsey Ross '16 led Elmira with 10 digs.
The Soaring Eagles saved their best for last as Elmira claimed a 3-0 victory over Skidmore in the final match of the night. Elmira's
Ashley Heiman '16 led the charge with a career-high 12 kills on 20 attempts, with just two errors, giving the junior middle hitter a superb .500 hitting percentage. Hanes added 36 assists, giving her a total of 56 in today's matches. On the defensive side of the ball, Ross and Ortiz led the way with 11 and 16 digs apiece, respectively.
ITHACA
The Ithaca College volleyball team split its two matches on the opening day of the Bomber Invitational Friday evening. Ithaca opened the day with a victory over Cazenovia, before falling to Union in five sets. The split pushes the Bombers' record to 4-1 on the season.
The Bombers made quick work of visiting Cazenovia (25-13, 25-14, 29-27), dropping the Wildcats in straight sets. Freshman
Joelle Goldstein led all players with 12 kills on 18 total attacks, giving her a .611 attack percentage. Junior captain
Dylan Gawinski Stern came in a close second with 11 kills over the three-set match.
Sophomore
Molly Brown paced Ithaca with six digs, while Gawinski Stern and freshman
Marlee Wierda each contributed four. Brown and junior
Carly Garone ranked first and second in assists, contributing 18 and 14, respectively.
Ithaca pushed Union to the limit in the second match of the day, but fell in a five-set thriller (15-25, 25-19, 25-27, 25-22, 6-15). The loss marked the Bombers' first loss of 2014.
Gawinski Stern led the Bombers with 14 kills on 51 total attacks, while Goldstein ranked second on the squad with 13 kills on 64 total attacks.
Caroline Gerulskis also chipped in with 10 kills. Brown once again paced Ithaca with 25 assists. Garone ranked second with 19 assists over the five-set match.
Kayla Gromen led all players with 32 digs.
HARTWICK
Hartwick's volleyball team dropped its opening two matches of the Nazareth College Invitational versus Fredonia State and Buffalo State on Friday night. The Hawks slip to 3-3 overall with the setbacks.
Against the Blue Devils, the Hawks fell by scores of 25-10, 25-12, 25-20. 'Wick received six kills from freshman
Rosa Maun. Sophomores
Quincy Kinzel and
Hannah Armstrong combined for 15 assists and
Dana Martin earned six digs.
In their second match against the defending SUNYAC champion Bengals, the Hawks held their own in the first set, falling narrowly 25-23. Buffalo State controlled the second set, 25-11, before pulling away in the third set, 25-20, for the win.
Martin registered a double-double with 10 kills and 11 digs for the Hawks with
Mary Beth DeCuyke adding six kills. Kinzel delivered 22 assists and
Alyssa Zeitler recorded the team-high in digs with 14.