Over the weekend, Women’s Volleyball played two of the hardest Patriot League Opponents: Colgate and Army. The Bison defeated both teams 3 to 2 and 3 to 1, respectively.
On Friday, Oct. 20, the Bison beat first-place and reigning Patriot League Champions Colgate in a back-and-forth five setter. They tallied 72 kills while maintaining a .253 hitting percentage, posted 98 digs and totaled 16 blocks. This marked the Orange and Blue’s first victory over Colgate since September 2017. Furthermore, the Bison ended Colgate’s 33-match home win streak that dated back to September 2021.
The Bison dropped the opening set 33-31, however battled back and won set two 25-17. Colgate then claimed the third set 25-21. With the match in jeopardy, the Bison rallied in the fourth to win 25-22. Going into the fifth set, the score was 2-2. However, the Bison maintained the lead in a nail-biting fifth set and won 15-11.
With this huge win, Women’s Volleyball has improved to 10-9 overall and 6-4 in the Patriot League.
A standout for the Bison was middle blocker Sidney Shaffer ’27. She filled the stats sheet with 17 kills on 34 attempts with only five errors. Additionally, she added four block solos, four block assists and four digs. Shaffer was one of four Orange and Blue players with double-digit kills. Catherine Jamison ’24 led all players with 18 kills, while Bri Frazilus ’26 earned 12 and Cameron Lloyd ’27 brought in 11 with 13 digs. Furthermore, Riley Tucker ’27 supplied eight kills with no errors and ended the match with four total blocks.
The Bison also dominated in digs. There were five Bison that registered double-digit digs, led by Jordan Hardy ’25 with 33. These digs moved Hardy into third all-time career digs in school history. She passed Brooke Stark who had 1353 from 2016-2019. Additionally, Caleigh O’Connell ’26 led the match with 48 assists.
The Bison’s 16 total blocks within the match were a season-high.
The next day, Oct. 21, the Bison traveled to West Point, N.Y. where they defeated number two ranked Patriot League Army 3-1. This was their first win against Army since 2015 and first victory at West Point Since 2003.
To lead the Bison attack, Jamison totaled 18 kills, Hardy recorded 34 digs and O’Connell tallied 39 assists. Additionally, Frazilus, Lloyd, Shaffer and Tucker earned nine kills. On defense, Libby Nieporte ’24 collected 27 digs.
The first set lasted nearly an hour and totaled 74 points. This long set, set the tone for the rest of the match.
The Bison clinched the first set 38-36, were defeated in the second set 29-27, and won both the third and fourth sets 26-24 and 25-23.
After this huge 2-0 weekend, the Bison are now number 3 in the Patriot League.
The Bison will return home to Davis Gym this weekend to face Loyola on Oct. 27 and Navy on Oct. 28.
