BALTIMORE, Md. – The No. 20 ranked Ithaca College volleyball team began the 2024 NCAA Division III Championship tournament on Thursday afternoon in a first round matchup against Lasell University. The Bombers played a competitive first set but rolled through the next two to complete the sweep (25-20, 25-15, 25-20). With the win, the Bombers improved to 23-6 overall and will advance to the Round of 32 play that will begin on Friday.
 
The first set opened with Lasell scoring the first three points of the match before the Bombers responded with a kill from Ella Graper. The Bombers would tie it up at three points apiece with a successful swing from Gabriela Gonzalez-Abreu that was assisted by Wesley Slavin. The IC run continued with them building a 5-3 advantage after kills from Faith Sabatier and Anaya Prince. The Lasers would tie it at 7-7 before Naomi Clauhs got into the action with a kill at the net. Clauhs would add a block at the net putting the Bombers up 10-7. The Lasers ended up tying it again, this time at 14-14, and led 17-15 before Ithaca rattled off two-straight to tie it at 17 all. The Lasers called the first timeout of the match after momentum shifted in Ithaca's favor with a Gonzalez-Abreu kill and service ace. The Bombers ended up taking the set at 25-20 after a Wesley Slavin ace and Clauhs kill.
 
The Lasers opened up with the first point, but quickly gave the serve back to Ithaca with a service error as the Bombers rattled off four more points including back-to-back kills from Gabriela Gonzalez-Abreu to force a timeout leading 5-1. The break in the action didn't stop the IC attack as they scored four more in a row, including two more Graper aces. The Bombers continued to lead and saw a successful swing from Graper and a Wesley Slavin ace that put them up 15-7. Ithaca continued to score capitalizing on Laser hitting errors, a bad set and another ace, this time from Peyton Miller that had them up 21-13. The Bombers closed out the set with back-to-back kills from Naomi Clauhs as they swung .258% within the set to go up 2-0.
 
Lasell would again build an early third set lead (10-5), but again the Bombers showed their fight slowly clawing back and getting it to a two-point deficit at 11-9 that forced a Lasers timeout after Gonzalez-Abreu and Faith Sabatier kills. Julia Costa served up an ace that tied it at 11-11 and from there they traded points until a 16-16 tie. Ellie Benedict recorded her second ace giving Ithaca the 17-16 advantage and out of the final Lasers timeout, Wesley Slavin assisted on a big-time Ella Graper kill. The Bombers finished the set on a 10-4 scoring spurt to close out the set and match in their favor.
 
Next up, the Bombers will square off against (RV) Smith College in a second round matchup at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday in Goldfarb Gymnasium. Ithaca bested Smith College in three sets during the NYU Invitational in early October winning 29-27, 25-20 and 25-21.