Emily Evancho
Assistant Sports Editor
The women’s volleyball team continued its strong start to the season this past weekend, defeating both Iona and Cornell in the Cornell Invitational while falling once to Buffalo.
“I’m so proud of my team for having a winning record at this point, but the loss to Buffalo shows we have some things to work on before entering Patriot League play,” Morgan Mientus ’14 said.
In their match against Iona, the Bison dominated with a 3-0 win. In the first set, the Bison rattled off seven consecutive points, giving the team a 1-0 lead in the match. The Orange and Blue began to trail in the second set, but they recovered with five consecutive points that led to a 26-24 win. The third set went much like the second, but the team pulled through to a 25-21 win. Mientus led the team with eight kills during the match, accompanied by her teammate Erika Eastley ’17, who also impressed with a match-best percentage of five kills out of the nine opportunities she had during the match.
“I’m really excited that we are starting the season off on such a good note. Our success in these past two weekends is a good indicator of the hard work we put in during preseason and I’m really excited to see what’s to happen later on in the season,” Eastley said.
The Bison did not have the same luck in their next match on Sept. 7 against Buffalo. Jessica Serrato ’14 and Eastley secured five kills each, but their efforts were not enough to stifle the Buffalo Bulls as they dropped all three sets.
“I think we are all proud of the way we handled ourselves coming back from the loss against Buffalo on Saturday. We didn’t dwell on our mistakes or let it set the tone for our last match,” Serrato said.
The 3-0 loss to Buffalo did not deter the team from pulling out a win in its match against Cornell later that day. Kristen Titley ’14 managed a season-high record of 17 kills in the match, along with Mientus who gained 11 kills. Eastley also helped the team’s efforts with nine registered blocks, aiding the Bison to a 3-2 win over Cornell.
“We played an awesome match on Friday and then Saturday morning we weren’t at our best, but we didn’t let it affect us and we bounced right back and played one of our best games of the season so far against Cornell,” Titley said.
The Bison will return to Davis Gym to host the Bucknell Invitational tonight and tomorrow. The Bison will play Rider at 7:30 p.m. Tomorrow, they will face Canisius at noon and Fairleigh Dickinson at 5 p.m.
