POTSDAM, N.Y. – The top-seeded Cortland women's volleyball team opened play in the NCAA Div. III tournament with a straight-set victory over eighth-seeded Colby-Sawyer College of New Hampshire at Clarkson University's Alumni Gymnasium. The nationally 17th-ranked Red Dragons (34-5) won 25-19, 25-13, 25-12 and will face fourth-seeded New Paltz in the second round Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
New Paltz defeated Skidmore in four sets in Friday's first round. The Hawks, like Cortland a member of the SUNYAC Eastern Division, split two matches with the Red Dragons during the regular season.
Senior setter
Kristen Guercio (Smithtown/Smithtown East) finished with 32 assists became the ninth player in NCAA Div. III history to reach 6,000 career assists. She has 6,010 assists in her four years at Cortland.
Cortland finished with a team .378 attack percentage (41 kills, seven errors in 90 attempts) in its win over Colby-Sawyer. Junior
Aubrey Barrett (Liverpool) totaled eight kills with no errors in 13 attempts for a .615 attack percentage. Senior
Ashley Coyle (Mt. Hope/Minisink Valley) had 10 kills and no errors in 23 attempts (.435) and junior
Ava Hintz (East Aurora) put down a team-high 13 kills with two errors in 26 attempts (.423).
Hintz also led Cortland with four aces and four blocks. Coyle had three aces and 10 digs and junior
Krissy Silk (Massapequa Park/Massapequa) led the team with 11 digs.
Colby-Sawyer (18-14) was led by Courtney O'Hara's seven kills and Laura Smolinski's 24 assists and 10 digs. Emilee McBride added six kills and only one error in nine attempts for a .556 attack percentage and Stephanie Vecchio chipped in with six kills and three aces. The Chargers were making their second straight NCAA appearance.
The first set was tied at 13-13, and the Chargers were still within 17-16 after a McBride kill that prompted a Cortland timeout. The Red Dragons responded with four straight points on kills by Barrett and Hintz, a Silk ace and a Colby-Sawyer ball handling error to take a 21-16 lead.
Cortland took an early 4-0 lead in the second set and was never seriously threatened. Colby-Sawyer led 5-2 to start the third set before the Red Dragons rattled off six straight points, including all three of Coyle's aces along with kills by Coyle, Barrett and Hintz. Colby-Sawyer tallied four straight points to re-gain the lead at 9-8, but Cortland put the set and match away with an 8-0 run sparked by Hintz's kill and two blocks, one solo.
