ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College volleyball team went the distance with Cortland on Wednesday evening in Ben Light Gymnasium and came away with a thrilling five-set victory. With the triumph, Ithaca runs its record to 19-1 on the season and continues its winning streak which is up to 15 matches in a row.

Before the match even started tonight, the Bombers had to deal with adversity due to an illness of head coach Janet Donovan that kept her away from the match. Assistant coach Derryk Williams stepped in to lead the Bombers and expressed his thoughts on the team's performance, "I was extremely proud of the way our team played tonight despite the fact that coach Donovan was not on the bench. Cortland was a really tough team so to take them in five sets was huge for us."

Ithaca jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the match with set wins of 25-20 and 25-21. Cortland answered with 25-23 and 26-24 victories in sets three and four to establish a winner-take-all fifth set. The Bombers secured the win with a 15-8 outcome in the deciding game.

In the fifth set, the Bombers fell behind, 4-1, but bounced to take a 5-4 lead. The rivals traded points up to an 8-7 difference for Cortland, and then the teams switched sides of the court. That proved to be a huge boost for the Bombers, as they ran off eight consecutive points to tally the victory.

Ithaca hit .250 in the match, compared to .176 for Cortland. The Bombers hit .308 and .302 in the first two sets, but slipped to .276 and .229 over the next two games. In the fifth set, Ithaca hit just .077, but Cortland swung at a -.100 clip.

Four Bombers tallied double digit kills in the win, highlighted by a career-high 18 from freshman Katie Evans. Evans finished the match with a hitting percentage of .680 (18K-1E-25A) and started the evening on a perfect 8-for-8 streak. She also tallied four digs, two blocks (one solo to end the match), an assist and ace.

Sophomore Joelle Goldstein paced Ithaca with 19 kills and match-high-tying 20 digs. Classmate Kayla Gromen dished out a career-high 65 assists with 11 digs, five kills and three aces. Gromen's previous career-best in assists was 58, which she recorded 11 days ago.

Sophomore Caroline Gerulskis notched 12 kills, five block assists and four digs, while freshman Hailey Adler put down 11 kills with 13 digs. Freshman Amanda Cerruti was a force at the net with seven block assists to go along with eight kills on a .263 hitting percentage.

Senior Dylan Gawinski-Stern put together a solid performance from the back line with 20 digs, while sophomore Marlee Wierda added a season-high 11 digs.

Ithaca travels to Nazareth on Oct. 10 for a crucial Empire 8 Conference tri-match with the Golden Flyers and Stevens. The Bombers open with Stevens at 1:30 p.m. and then play Nazareth at 4 p.m. Ithaca currently leads to conference with a 4-0 record, while Stevens holds a 3-0 mark. Nazareth is tied for third with a 3-1 record.

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