The women’s volleyball team traveled to Oneonta, New York, on Oct. 20 to compete against SUNY Oneonta. The Bombers were able to take three of five sets against the Red Dragons, winning the match.
In the first set, the South Hill squad was leading 23–19, but the Red Dragons were able to fight their way back and tie the game at 23–23. The Bombers won the set after scoring four of the five final points to give the squad a 26–24 win.
The Blue and Gold went on to lose the next two sets by scores of 25–20 and 25–22. Oneonta led for the entirety of the second set, whereas the Bombers took the lead early in the third set with a score of 8–6, but were unable to maintain that lead, giving Oneonta a 2–1 advantage going into the fourth set.
The Bombers won the fourth set, which forced the fifth decisive set. The Blue and Gold’s largest lead during the fourth set was 20–15. However, Oneonta came back and tied the set at 23–23, but the Bombers took the win by scoring the final two points, coming out on top with a final score of 25–23.
The decisive set was also a close one. The Bombers were barely holding onto an 8–7 lead when the teams switched sides. The South Hill squad went on to win the match with a 7–5 run. Freshman Kyle Dandrea scored the winning point on a kill, as the Bombers took the 15–12 victory.
In addition to her match-winning kill, Dandrea also racked up five more kills to give her six on the day. The Bombers’ offense was led by sophomore captain Joelle Goldstein with 16 digs, four block assists, 14 kills and a .279 hitting percentage for the night. Sophomore Kayla Gromen meanwhile collected 44 assists, 17 digs and five kills with a hitting percentage of .364.
Sophomore Caroline Gerulskis had nine kills with two digs, and freshman Hailey Adler ended the night with a double-double — 10 kills and 10 digs. Freshman Katie Evans also tacked on seven kills and three digs. Senior captain Dylan Gawinski-Stern finished with an impressive 17 digs from the back row, and sophomore Marlee Wierda contributed another five digs to the Bombers’ defense.
The Blue and Gold finished the night with 73 digs, 56 kills and seven blocks. The squad is currently 23–3 on the season and 5–1 in five set matches. The team competes next Oct. 24 in an Empire 8 Conference tri-match against both St. John Fisher College and Hartwick College. The Bombers will play Hartwick at 11 a.m. and Fisher at 4 p.m.
