It took the No. 21 Ithaca College volleyball team less than an hour to dispatch the Bard College Raptors on Nov. 2, sweeping them in three sets 25-6, 25-11 and 25-9, at Ben Light Gymnasium.
The Bombers set the tone early as they started the first set on a 7-1 run, then later put together a 9-0 run that began with four straight kills from sophomore outside hitter/right side Naomi Clauhs and ended with three straight service aces. The Raptors only had three kills and one ace throughout the first two sets.
Clauhs would have the best three-set performance of her Bomber career, finishing the match with 17 kills—tied for the second most of her career—on a hitting percentage of .680. She said the team and coaching staff helped her production.
“Part of my game plan was to try and be a little bit smarter instead of just swinging the ball straight down,” Clauhs said. “When I go off the court and people on the bench are telling me what spots to look for and where I’m going, I want to make them proud and follow through just for them, so that was my mindset for today.”
The next two sets also went by with very little resistance from the Raptors, and the total game dominance was reflected in the stats. The Raptors committed 18 more attacking errors and 12 more receiving errors than the Bombers, showing the level of execution the Bombers put together. Even more indicative of that are the team hitting percentage numbers, where the Bombers were at nearly .500 on the day, but the Raptors were held to -.209.
The comfort level of the match allowed the Bombers to rotate their squad. This led to second and third kill leaders on the day being junior setter Maddie Cox and southpaw first-year student hitter Zoe Strachan — both set season highs on the day, with five and three kills respectively.
Head coach Tara Stilwell said that her team came in with a game plan that they executed very well.
“It was a little bit different of a scout [from Nov. 1],” Stilwell said. “We came in with plans that we wanted to accomplish. We wanted to fight in serve receive, being patient and disciplined, we had different specific goals. I think that that helped them stay focused and oriented.”
The Bombers will finish their regular season against their rival, the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons, on senior day at noon Nov. 9 in Ben Light Gymnasium.
