ITHACA, N.Y. – The No. 21 ranked Ithaca College volleyball team continued its winning streak, notching their 12-straight victory to advance through the second round of the NCAA tournament, defeating Babson College in three straight sets at Ben Light Gymnasium. The Bombers advance to the third round to face NYU tomorrow night on South Hill at 5 p.m.
VS. Babson College (25-20, 28-26, 25-12)
The Bombers got out to a strong start with an
Ella Graper kill to open up play as they fed off the Ben Light faithful early. After a quick back and forth, Ithaca College was able to have a few back-to-back tallies putting them on the board with a 6-1 lead.
Peyton Miller and
Julia Costa added in three service aces combined putting the Bombers up 19-15.
Faith Sabatier and
Jamie Koopman were strong performers on the net early, allowing the Bombers to steal the first set of the match propelling them into set two on a high note.
Babson College came out of the gates hungry in the second set, scoring the first three points in the second set. With a continuous back and forth nail-biting action the game was tied up 10-10, both teams unwilling to give up.
The Bombers were alternating points between them and Babson throughout the whole set, but
Ella Graper and
Faith Sabatier came in for the kills to force a Babson timeout in hopes to slow down Ithaca College. Coming out of the timeout,
Ellie Benedict started with a service ace, increasing the score to 20-17.
The Beavers were relentless, tallying four-straight points, stealing the lead making this set 21-20. After countless back and forth volleys, kills came from
Naomi Clauhs and
Ella Graper saw the Bombers up 25-24. Babson tied it at 25-25 and went up 26-25 but
Maddie Cox was able to seal the deal with a final service ace, followed by a Beavers bad set to increase the lead two sets to one in favor of the Bombers.
Coming out hot opening the third set,
Faith Sabatier,
Alexandra Montgomery and Jaime Koopman all pitched in a kill to make the score 4-1.
Peyton Miller had a strong showing early in the third with two-straight service aces making it 8-3.
The Beavers were itching to come back pitching in points here and there in efforts to cut the deficit smaller each time. After four-straight attacking errors in favor of IC made the score 18-8, forcing Babson to call another timeout in hopes to slow down the score.
Ahead 19-12 the Bombers were able to increase the hype thanks to a combined efforts from
Jamie Koopman and
Alexandra Montgomery with two huge kills making the score 23-12.
Ending the game,
Peyton Miller showed up with a final service ace to complete the sweep and make the final score 25-12.
Jamie Koopman, and
Naomi Clauhs both had a great day for the Bombers, having a combined 24 kills.
Peyton Miller showed out today on the service line with seven service aces for the night.
Ellie Benedict had 11 digs adding to the Bombers win tonight in Ben Light. Ithaca College finished the night with 40 kills total, with a hitting percentage of .329%.
REACTION FROM HEAD COACH JOHAN DULFER, NAOMI CLAUHS AND JAMIE KOOPMAN
The Bombers advance to the third round, where they face NYU in Ben Light Gymnasium at 5 p.m. Saturday night.
