SELINSGROVE, Pa. – The 24^th-ranked Ithaca College women's volleyball team was back on the court on Saturday when it faced a challenging doubleheader against Johns Hopkins and Susquehanna in the final day of action at the Hampton Inn River Hawk Invitational. Unfortunately, IC was unable to sustain its recent roll, as the Bombers came up short in a pair of four-set defeats. The losses drop Ithaca's record to 7-5 on the season.
 
#24 Ithaca 1 – Johns Hopkins 3 (16-25, 25-21, 14-25, 17-25)
Ithaca began the day with a clash against the Blue Jays. IC struggled to sustain the momentum from its comeback five-set victory yesterday evening against Mary Washington. Johns Hopkins kept IC off-balance for much of the match with some strong work from the service line, while Ithaca struggled to minimize mistakes of its own in the service game. The result was a four-set defeat in which Johns Hopkins pulled away convincingly in all three of its winning sets.
 
"Johns Hopkins is an incredibly talented team that I expect to be playing on the last weekend of the season," head coach Johan Dulfer said. "We struggled with our rhythm and could not quite figure out the balance between aggressive serving and keeping our errors under control."
 
The second set was the lone bright spot for Ithaca. The Bombers racked up 16 kills and converted on a .364 hitting clip to even the match at 1-1. The other three sets were certainly characterized by some uncharacteristic sloppiness. Despite hanging with the Blue Jays in terms of kills, it was the errors that were the difference, as IC committed 25 errors in its three losing sets, compared to just 10 for Johns Hopkins.
 
Junior right-side Reagan Stone paced the Bombers with 16 kills and 10 digs, while junior Sarah Jennison was quite sharp in amassing 10 kills on .308 hitting success. First-year Camryn O'Leary delivered a season-best seven kills, while sophomore Alison Lipton marked three kills in one set of action.
 
Ithaca struggled to generate a consistent attacking threat in the middle. First-year Jennifer Pitts was limited to five kills and three block assists, while junior Katie Basey delivered two kills, as well as one solo block and one block assist.
 
Senior setter Caitlyn Floyd posted 36 assists, three block assists, and two kills.
 
Sophomore libero Jordyn Lyn Hayashi led the backline with 19 digs. First-year Grace Isaksen chipped in nine digs, while classmate Hannah Hughes finished with seven digs and a team-best three service aces.
 
#24 Ithaca 1 – Susquehanna 3 (26-24, 22-25, 24-26, 23-25)
The second match of the day featured another challenging battle against a Susquehanna outfit that has gotten off to a fast start to the season. Unfortunately, a promising start turned sour for the Bombers, as the River Hawks were able to battle back from a one-set deficit to win each of the next three frames by very tight margins.
 
"Against Susquehanna, I felt like we did a much better job, but I think fatigue really caught up to us as the match continued," Dulfer continued. "I thought that we really set the tone and controlled the pace for much of the final three sets, but we struggled to close things out in the crucial moments at the end of each set. It is a great learning experience for sure, but certainly a frustrating way to conclude the weekend."
 
The statistics again do not paint the most accurate picture of the ultimate result of the match. The Bombers held significant advantages of 57-to-48 in kills, 6-to-2 in service aces, and 67-to-62 in digs; however, it was not enough to overcome a 34-to-23 mark in errors and a 13-to-8 advantage in blocks by the River Hawks.
 
Four Bombers posted double-digit kills in the match. Stone led the group with 19 kills, while also adding four digs, three service aces, two block assists, and one solo block. Lipton added 13 kills, while Jennison racked up 11 kills and one solo block and one block assist. Pitts rounded out the attacking quartet with 10 kills on .474 hitting success, while she added four block assists defensively.
 
Floyd tallied her second 50-plus assist match of the weekend finishing with 52 in the contest. She added nine digs, three block assists, as well as one kill and one service ace.
 
Hayashi had another strong effort with 26 digs, while Hughes posted a big double-digit dig effort with 18. Isaksen added four digs, while sophomore Laura Severance finished with two digs.
 
Looking Ahead
Ithaca will welcome SUNY Cortland for a 7:00 p.m. clash at Ben Light Gymnasium on Wednesday, September 25. The match will kick off a four-match week for the Bombers in which the team also faces home contests against Union, Skidmore and NYU on Saturday and Sunday.
 
"Moving forward, we are going to focus on getting healthy and are looking forward to playing on our home floor on Wednesday," Dulfer concluded.