ITHACA, N.Y. – It turned out to be an extremely competitive weekend of volleyball in Ben Light Gymnasium on Saturday with Ithaca College picking up a hard fought five set victory over SUNY Geneseo before falling 3-0 to No. 19 Gustavus Adolphus in a spirited fight against the ranked opponent.
 
Outstanding defense by Julia Costa and Elli Gaskill in addition to powerful offense by Faith Sabatier, Alex Montgomery and Leila Chipepo contributed to Ithaca's win. The Bombers had 89 digs, 62 kills and 56 assists in the five-set victory over SUNY Geneseo.
 
VS. GENESEO (15-25, 27-25, 22-24, 25-21, 15-6)

• The Bombers put up a strong fight in the start of the first set against the Knights with four back-to-back kills from Faith Sabatier. Geneseo built a four-point lead for itself at 14-10, Ithaca could not close the gap, even despite a surge of energy from the Bombers after a Leila Chipepo kill and an impressive defensive play for Grace Isaksen at the end of the set. The Knights took the first set 25-15, giving themselves a 1-0 advantage.
• The Bombers came out strong with two high intensity runs to start the second set and maintained its energy throughout the set with four kills from Alexandra Montgomery. The Bombers had a 12-7 advantage when Geneseo called a timeout and added six more points before giving up four-straight to the Knights and calling their first timeout of the second set. After Ithaca's timeout, the Knights continued to trim the deficit to just three points after an intense rally from both teams with great defense from Jennifer Pitts, Julia Costa and Chipepo. Both teams battled back and forth before tying up the match 23-23, but the Bombers came out on top in the end, winning the second set 27-25 and tying the match 1-1 overall.
• Both teams came into the third set with high energy and battled back and forth for the entirety of the set. After back-to-back kills from Faith Sabatier, a service ace by Elli Gaskill and a kill each for Aleka Dark, Montgomery and Jennifer Pitts, the Bombers led 14-8 when the Knights called the first timeout of the third set before they began to make a comeback. Geneseo scored seven uninterrupted points to take the lead from the Bombers, but Ithaca quickly scored again to tie things back up at 17 points apiece. Both teams continued to fight head-to-head with neither team gaining more than a two-point lead the rest of the set. Geneseo ultimately won the third set 25-22 and took the advantage overall, 2-1.
• The intensity on both sides of the court only continued to grow into the fourth set. Geneseo maintained the lead for the majority of the first half of the set, the Bombers maintained less than a three-point gap until they called a timeout when the Knights led 14-10. After the break, Ithaca came back to tie the match back up 15-15 thanks to two kills from Montgomery and a kill and service ace by Faith Sabatier. The Bombers worked up to a 20-18 lead when Geneseo took another timeout and continued to fight relentlessly through the rest of the set to win 25-21 over the Knights and tie the match up again at 2-2.
• In suit with the rest of the match, the fifth set score remained close through the first half with a strong fight from both sides of the court. Darko and Sabatier each had two kills in addition to a pair of momentum-shifting aces from Sabatier to give the Bombers an 8-5 lead before switching sides of the net. Jennifer Pitts scored the match point for the Bombers with a great kill to win the fifth set 15-6 and the match 3-2.

 
VS. NO. 19 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS (23-25, 21-25, 18-25)

• It took a huge come from behind effort from the nationally ranked Gusties that saw them take the opening set by a margin of two points at 25-23. The Bombers quickly established themselves taking advantage of a Gustavus Adolphus hitting error before going up 3-1 with a Leila Chipepo kill that was assisted by Julia Costa. With the score deadlocked at eight, IC rattled off three-straight including a block at the net by both Jennifer Pitts and Chipepo. This time it was a block solo at the net from the first year that put the Bombers up 16-11. Gustavus gritted out a comeback to deadlock the score at 19 points apiece that was capped off by an ace. The Golden Gusties used that momentum to take the set 25-23.
• The Bombers again came out strong in the third and a Samantha Klemm service ace had them trailing 5-4. Gustavus had a strong middle portion of the set building a 21-14 lead, but IC showed their resilience and made it 23-17 after an Ella Graper kill.
• Gustavus showed why they're early top-25 program running away with the three-set scrappy sweep. Statistically the Bombers had more kills (37-35), digs (50-45) and it was even at the net with each team combining for five blocks. Aleka Darko finished with eight kills and Julia Costa totaled 12 digs.

REACTION FROM HEAD COACH JOHAN DULFER

• On the progress the team made: " I thought the three matches presented us with unique opportunities to become better. We're lucky to have been pushed to five sets twice and learned a lot along the way. Winning close matches is something you must learn and experience. Those two matches will pay huge dividends down the road as we take aim at a Liberty League championship."
• On finishing the invitational 2-1: "I thought that if one or two points fell differently in the first two sets against Gustavus, that match would've toppled in a different direction. Sometimes that happens and we will learn from it. The fact is that match was our best of the year, and we can build on that. We played very mature, earned most of our points, and beat a ranked team in kills, digs and blocks on the stat sheet. We just have to learn to convert the "big points" when it matters, and we'll continue to work on that. I can't wait to see the continued progress of this team."

The Bombers will return to action next weekend competing in another highly competitive tournament. IC will participate in the ASICS Invitational next Friday and Saturday in Selinsgrove, Pa. beginning with a matchup against No. 4 Juniata College.