ITHACA, N.Y. – In front of a packed Ben Light Gymnasium crowd, the Ithaca College volleyball program won the first set and stumbled in the second but won two-straight in convincing fashion over SUNY Cortland for the 3-1 win on Tuesday. The Bombers have now rattled off 12-straight wins as they improved to 15-3 overall while the non-conference loss dropped Cortland to 13-4 on the season.
VS. SUNY CORTLAND (25-14, 16-25, 25-17, 25-19)
- The Bombers saw double digit kill totals in each set they won as they had 13 each in both the first and third sets. The presence of Aleka Darko and Leila Chipepo made a difference in IC's favor all evening long at net as the duo combined for seven blocks. Darko put together three block solos and combined on her other as she totaled 12 kills. Her high school teammate Faith Sabatier tallied a team-high 13 kills.
- The teams traded points to open the first set before the Bombers ripped off five-straight points to take the 8-3 lead that was capped off by back-to-back Sabatier kills. The Red Dragons made it interesting going on a 4-0 run that saw them cut the deficit to 11-10. Ithaca's offensive attack had an immediate response as an Alexandra Montgomery point started a run that saw her team build a 20-11 advantage. Within the string of points, Elli Gaskill had a pair of service aces. The Bombers closed out the set with a successful swing from Jamie Koopman and made the most of an opponent attacking error.
- The Red Dragons pushed Ithaca in the second set as they built a 12-6 lead that eventually turned into a 15-7 advantage before head coach Johan Dulfer settled his squad down with a timeout. Out of the break, the Bombers were only able to cut it down to 21-15 as Cortland closed the set on a 4-1 run.
- The Bombers scored five of the first six points of the third set, but Cortland fought back to make 8-6 in their favor before the IC offensive attack once again caught fire. Maddie Cox caught the front-line napping with the first point of a 9-1 run that saw her team go up 15-9 at the end of it. Cortland would show its grit cutting the lead down to just three (18-15), but IC once again seized the momentum with four kills down the stretch.
- Cortland once again made things interesting in the fourth set as they went up 10-8, but another big scoring run, this time a 9-0 spurt that was capped with a Faith Sabatier kill that was assisted by Maddie Cox. The 17-10 lead for Ithaca proved to be enough as they ended up taking the match point on a Red Dragon attacking error. The Red Dragons saw their six-match winning streak snapped as they were paced by Allie Sturgess who recorded a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs.
REACTION FROM HEAD COACH JOHAN DULFER
"Cortland is a good and well coached team that we have a lot of respect for. They had a good game plan. In the end we served tougher than Cortland for long enough to gut out the win. I'm super proud of how all of my players are involved in learning about the opponent during the match and how we feed information into the team. It wasn't the first time this year that this made a huge impact."
Next up, Ithaca will travel to Arlington, Virginia to take on Marymount University on Thursday, October 13. The match is slated to begin at 7 p.m.
