Ithaca Moves onto E8 Final with Sweep of Naz
HOBOKEN, N.J. – The Ithaca College volleyball team advanced to the final of the Empire 8 Conference Championships with a sweep of Nazareth in the semifinal round on Saturday in Hoboken, N.J. With the win, Ithaca is now 29-4 on the season and will play host Stevens tomorrow at 12 p.m. for an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship.
In the first set, Ithaca and Nazareth battled back-and-fourth over for the beginning of the game until the Bombers built a 13-8 lead and forced Naz to call a timeout. From there, the Bombers pushed their lead out to 21-14 to take control of the set and claim the opening game of the match, 25-19. Sophomore
Joelle Goldstein ended the set on a service ace.
Goldstein, sophomore
Kayla Gromen and freshman
Hailey Adler all tallied two kills in the set. Freshman
Amanda Cerruti accounted for a solo block and three block assists.
The second set started in a similar fashion as the first. Things stayed close up to a 10-10 deadlock, until the Bombers strung together seven of the next nine points to capture a 17-12 lead. Ithaca used four kills and three errors by the Golden Flyers to grab the five-point lead. Nazareth fought back with three consecutive points to make it 17-15, but the Bombers would answer with eight of the next nine points to win, 25-16. Ithaca hit .316 in the second set, compared to .069 in the first.
Ithaca fell behind early in the third set, 5-3, but the Bomber answered with five unanswered points to go ahead, 8-5, and they never looked back. The lead grew to 21-12 before Nazareth made a late push to bring it back to 24-21, but the match ended on a kill from freshman
Katie Evans.
Adlder led the offense with 10 kills to go along with seven digs. Goldstein added six kills, 14 digs, four aces and three blocks. Gerulskis notched five kills, two digs and two blocks.
Gromen handed out 25 assists with eight digs and three kills. Evans swung at a .389 clip with eight kills on 18 attempts, while senior
Dylan Gawinski-Stern tallied 12 digs and two assists. Sophomore
Marlee Wierda chipped in nine digs and two aces. Junior
Breanne Tuohy accounted for two kills in the final set.
Nazareth junior
Cady Messmer posted a match-high 14 kills against just three hitting errors for a .314 percentage for the Golden Flyers. She surpassed 400 kills for the season with a team-best 405 and finishes the season with 682 for her career. She also had two service aces and 13 digs.
Freshman
Kelsey Milligan added five kills for Nazareth and junior
Maureen Thayer totaled 21 assists.
The Bombers will look to claim their first Empire 8 title since 2010 tomorrow afternoon in Canavan Arena.