ITHACA, N.Y. – No. 22 nationally ranked Ithaca College put together a convincing 3-0 win over William Smith on Saturday as the Bombers captured back-to-back Liberty League Championships with the victory. In a thrilling showdown today, the Ithaca College Bombers marked a significant moment in their season as they became back-to-back Liberty League Champions. Winning the game in just three sets, the Bombers displayed incredible resilience, hard work, and grit as they emerged triumphant. This marked the second conference championship for Ithaca College in a row.
VS. WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGE (25-17, 25-13, 25-22)
The Ithaca Bombers as the No.1 seed came in hot today in Ben Light Gymnasium as they took on the Herons of William Smith College. IC came out with four points in a row, two being from
Gabriela Gonzalez-Abreu with
Jamie Koopman, and
Faith Sabatier chipping in for the third and fourth points of the game. Kills from
Naomi Clauhs and blocks by
Faith Sabatier gave the Bombers a leg up early.
Wesley Slavin finished the set out with a service ace, sending the IC into the second set with a 1-0.
William Smith attempted to slow the Bombers down, but Ben Lights energy elevated IC's momentum. With a service ace by
Ellie Benedict to start the game, and kills by Sabatier, Gonzalez-Abreu, as well as a dump over effort from
Maddie Cox, brought the Bombers to a 5-3 lead early. The Herons defense did not know what hit them when the score improved to 12-5 with five kills in a row from the Bombers. A final service ace by
Ellie Benedict improved the score to 25-13 in favor of IC.
The Bombers could almost taste the victory with a
Gabriela Gonzalez-Abreu Kill that was assisted by
Faith Sabatier to launch IC into the third set. The Herons were unwilling to back-down and took an early 6-2 lead. The Bombers had a selfless string of kills from multiple players that tied the game up 14-14 as
Maddie Cox was setting up the action. From there Ithaca was able to take a fast lead making William Smith call a timeout as the Bombers went up 23-18. After a thrilling back and forth the Bombers were able to secure the win with a final swing and kill at the net from
Jamie Koopman.
Ithaca swung at a .354% clip and had 14 kills in the third set. The Bombers were led by
Naomi Clauhs with 12 Kills,
Maddie Cox with 30 assists and
Julia Costa with 14 digs.
REACTION FROM HEAD COACH JOHAN DULFER
"Credit to William Smith, for a second year program making the conference finals means lots of good things are happening there. I thought we played very together tonight and had such good energy," Dulfer said.
"We made their setter run a marathon tonight with our serving and that was the difference. I'm just so proud of all the work we've put in this year and all the obstacles we learned to deal with and to see it culminating in a championship moment like this is very rewarding. Our journey isn't done yet."
With an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Tournament as the Liberty League Champions, Ithaca College (25-4, 8-0 Liberty League) will wait and see where they're positioned on Monday, November 13 during the NCAA Selection Show. It will take place at 1 p.m. on Monday on
NCAA.com.
