CORTLAND, N.Y. – Geneseo's Grace Cergol recorded 21 kills, including 12 over the final two sets, as the Knights pulled away for a four-set victory over Cortland, 25-21, 21-25, 25-13, 25-16, in a SUNYAC women's volleyball match at Corey Gymnasium.
Geneseo (15-9, 8-0 SUNYAC) clinched the SUNYAC regular-season title with the win and will host the SUNYAC tournament semifinals and finals Nov. 8-9. Cortland (22-8, 6-2 SUNYAC) will host Brockport Saturday at 1 p.m. to close out the league regular-season schedule. If Cortland wins that match it will earn the second seed and a bye into the semifinals of the six-team league playoffs. If the Red Dragons lose, they will be the third seed and will host the sixth seed (to be determined) in the quarterfinals Nov. 5.
Hannah Southcott (Princeton, WV) led Cortland with 13 kills, followed by
Nicole Van Pelt (Montgomery/Valley Central) with nine and
Cat Mangogna (Manorville/Eastport-South Manor) and
Nadia Moore (Durham, NC/Durham School of the Arts) with eight apiece.
Carly Haegele (Commack) registered 21 digs, while Southcott had 20.
Gabby Amelio (Pine Bush) totaled 18 assists and 14 digs and
Malley Bowen (Tioga/Tioga Central) had 13 assists, three aces and eight digs.
Bridgette Moran (Massapequa Park/St. John the Baptist) finished with five kills, a .308 attack percentage and a team-high five blocks. Moore added four blocks and
Kiersten Cote (East Rockaway/Kellenberg Memorial) ended with 14 digs.
Cergol finished the night with 21 kills and three errors in 54 swings for a .333 attack percentage. Abby May had 14 kills and two errors in 50 attempts for a .240 mark and Grace Thomas dished out 41 assists. Sam Mendelsohn led Geneseo with 23 digs, followed by Thomas with 21 and Cergol and Emily Haber with 13 each. Kiersten Colvin paced the Knights' defense with five blocks.
Cortland led 21-20 in the first set after a Cote ace, but Geneseo scored the final five points, capped by a Cergol ace. The Red Dragons rallied from 14-10 and 18-15 deficits in the second set. A 6-0 run, featuring both a solo and assisted block by Moore, gave Cortland a 21-18 lead, and the Red Dragons eventually closed the set on a Moran kill.
Geneseo was up 10-7 in the third set before mounting a 9-2 run to take control. The Knights also took charge early in the fourth set, jumping out to an 11-3 lead and scoring five straight to push a 13-7 lead to 18-7. Cergol had four kills with no errors in eight attempts during the third set and registered eight kills with one error in 15 attempts in the fourth.
Geneseo finished with a .196 team attack percentage, including a .310 mark in the third and .271 in the fourth. Cortland was held to a .080 team percentage, with its best performance at .188 in the second.
