Women's Volleyball | 10/26/2019 7:50:00 PM
ROCHESTER, NY -- Senior Melissa Newcomb had 17 kills and junior setter Jessica Barry amassed 41 assists Saturday as Nazareth won a four-set women's volleyball match over Elmira at the Kidera Gymnasium. Scores were 25-9, 26-28, 25-20, 25-15.
The victory gave the Golden Flyers a weekend sweep of Empire 8 Conference matches and secured them the No. 3 seed for next month's E8 Tournament to be hosted by St. John Fisher. The Golden Flyers, now 12-14 overall and 5-2 in E8 matches, also defeated Hartwick Friday in four sets. The conference tournament is set for Nov. 8-9 with top-seeded Fisher playing fourth-seeded Elmira in one semifinal at 5 p.m. and Nazareth playing second-seeded Houghton in the other semifinal at 7:30 p.m. The championship match is Nov. 9 at 2 p.m.
In Saturday's match, Newcomb contributed five service aces in addition to her match-best 17 kills. She had 29 attempts for a tidy .448 hitting percentage. Delaney Martin added 11 kills and 17 digs and Danielle Synowski had nine kills. Julia Cavanaugh had four kills and five blocks.
Nazareth dominated the opening set by building a 19-3 lead behind three kills each from Martin and Synowski.
Nazareth led 24-21 in the second set and then 26-25 before Elmira rallied to score the final three points. In the third set, Newcomb had six kills on seven swings and Martin added four on eight attempts as Nazareth hit .400 (14-2-30) overall. The fourth set also was one-sided as Newcomb generated seven more kills and Cavanaugh ended the match with a solo block.
Nazareth competes again next weekend in the New York Regional Challenge, hosted by the University of Rochester. The Golden Flyers play Montclair State and Fredonia Friday at 4 and 8 p.m. respectively and NYU Saturday at 1.