Hartwick Box Score | St. John Fisher Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The volleyball team (17-11, 5-1 Empire 8) opened the second Empire 8 Crossover weekend with 3-0 sweeps of Hartwick (6-21, 1-4 Empire 8) and St. John Fisher (16-13, 2-4 Empire 8). Ithaca beat the Hawks 25-15, 25-20, 25-13 and topped the Cardinals 25-13, 25-23, 25-23. Ithaca faces Alfred at noon Saturday, then takes on Stevens at 5 p.m.

The first match saw a total of 14 tied scores and eight lead changes, but Ithaca was able to stay a step ahead of its competition to take three straight over the Hawks.

An Ithaca error in the first frame knotted the set at 6-6 before the Bombers tallied eight unanswered en route to a 25-15 set-one victory.

Ithaca went ahead 4-3 in the second set and held the advantage until Hartwick inched back for a 12-11 edge. The score would twice again flip-flop before Ithaca tied the game at 20 and went ahead with five unanswered to claim the set, 25-20.

The Bombers allowed the Hawks the first point of the final set before deadlocking it at 1-1 and running away with the lead. An 11-1 run helped Ithaca to a 20-6 cushion that it used to propel to victory with a 25-13 third-stanza win.

Junior Chelsea Hayes (Northern Valley Regional/Haworth, N.J.) led the match with 14 kills and an attack percentage of .321, aided by a team-leading 18 assists from sophomore Marissa Woodcome (Pittsford Sutherland/Pittsford). Freshman Sydney Folk (Long Beach/Long Beach) also dished out 15 assists for the Blue & Gold.

During the match, senior Taylor Horton (Lakeridge/Lake Oswego, Ore.) was the lone player to reach double-digit digs with 13.

The Bombers notched its fourth consecutive win taking the second match of the day from St. John Fisher, 3-0, their eighth shutout of the 2010 season.

The Cardinals led the first set until a kill by junior Jessica Hoeffner (Hauppauge/Hauppauge) knotted the frame at 8-8. It proved to be the first of seven unanswered points that Ithaca would score that gave the Bombers a commanding 14-8 lead. St. John Fisher once brought the set within five, but that is as close as it would get as Ithaca recorded the first of three, 25-13.

The second and third sets each finished in the Ithaca's favor with scores of 25-23. The sets combined were tied 17 times and saw 10 lead changes.

The highlight of the sets was Ithaca's surge from a 19-12 deficit on 10 unanswered points forcing a pair of Cardinal timeouts. St. John Fisher scored a trio of points to bring the third set to a 23-23 stalemate before a pair of their own errors helped Ithaca to the win.

Hoeffner recorded a match-high 16 kills on the evening good for a solid .455 hitting percentage off assists from Woodcome and Folk. Woodcome tallied 19 and Folk 16.

Senior Tina Orlandini (Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy/Altadena, Calif.) collected 15 digs to lead the Bombers and Horton added 13, while junior Elizabeth Previte (Hunterdon Central/Flemington, N.J.) led defensive efforts at the net with a career-high six (six assists) blocks. Junior Kate Thoene (Voorhees/High Bridge, N.J.) also notched six blocks (one solo, five assists) for the Bombers.