The No. 21 Ithaca College volleyball team held their nerve throughout a seemingly unpredictable match on Nov. 1, sweeping the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers 28-26, 25-12 and 25-21 at Ben Light Gymnasium.
The Bombers came into the game having lost eight of their last 11 sets dating back to last weekend’s Wesleyan Invitational, so they looked to this match against a solid RIT squad hovering just above a .600 winning rate for a bounce-back.
However, they would need to do so without a key piece of their attack. Head coach Tara Stilwell said sophomore setter Wesley Slavin came down with an illness before the game and was unable to play. Junior setter Maddie Cox played almost the entire game in her stead.
The first set did not start smoothly for Ithaca as the Tigers jumped out to a 7-2 lead off the back of RIT senior middle blocker/outside hitter Catherine Vento’s three kills. The Bombers fought their way back into the game to take a 12-10 lead, and from that point, the set became a back-and-forth affair. Both teams went on several scoring runs, eventually causing the set to go into extras. RIT took advantage, but the Bombers scored three straight points to end the set. This sequence began and ended with spiked kills from senior middle blockers Anaya Prince and Josie Hampton, respectively.
After a tight first set, the same could have reasonably been expected for the second, but the Bombers had other plans. They cleaned up almost all offensive mistakes by committing only one attacking error, while declawing the Tigers’ attack, forcing them to a lowly -0.074 hitting percentage.
Stilwell said she felt the team was not following the game plan enough during the first game, but saw significant improvement during the second.
“In the time outs, there’s a lot of talk about ‘Okay, remember what we talked about pre-match. We gotta start executing,’” Stilwell said. “That transition in the second set was all about game plan. We served by people, we set up our blocks better, we didn’t hesitate in defense, and we started attacking zone one.”
The playing field evened yet again during the third set as RIT shifted to a three-middle offense for the remainder of the match, giving them added blockers across the net. Stilwell commended the adjustment made by the Tigers, but it seemed to be too little too late for the cats. Down 9-8, the Bombers went on an 8-1 run and build up a lead they would never relinquish. The final point came from sophomore outside hitter Gabriela Gonzalez-Abreu when her kill split two blockers and landed between two Tiger defenders. Gonzalez-Abreu led the match in kills, logging 12 on the day.
Cox stepped up, putting together 31 assists, five digs, four kills and even three services aces, all season highs. She said the team around her is what helped make her impressive performance possible.
“I would say it’s easy to go out, work really hard and have a good game when you have such amazing people around you who support you and play really well,” Cox said. “Even coming off of not playing a lot, you come out and everybody has your back and goes after all the balls you set up.”
Cox was not the only Bomber to step up when given the chance today, as first-year outside hitter/right side Jayden Wiese put together one of her best games of the season. Weise had six kills and the first solo block of her career with a hitting percentage of 0.417, the best efficiency of any Bomber with at least ten attempts tonight. The Bombers proved that their roster is not just talented, but deep, too.
