CORTLAND, N.Y. – The top-seeded Cortland women's volleyball team advanced to the SUNYAC tournament championship match with a 25-18, 25-12, 25-20 semifinal victory over fourth-seeded Geneseo at Corey Gymnasium.
 
Cortland (20-5), the defending league champion, will face second-seeded Brockport (20-7) in the title match Saturday at 4 p.m. at Cortland. Brockport won in four sets versus New Paltz in Friday's second semifinal contest.
 
Allie Sturgess (Stony Brook/Ward Melville) led Cortland with a career-high 17 kills. She finished the match with a .364 attack percentage and added eight digs. Zoe Staats (Buchanan/Hendrick Hudson) rang up 12 kills with three errors in 20 swings for a .450 attack percentage. Emma Reilly (Massapequa Park/Massapequa) had seven kills and one error in 11 attempts (.545) and led the Red Dragons with four blocks. Giovanna Rossi (Nichols/Tioga) chipped in with six kills.
 
Ryan Hinshaw (Aurora, IL/Joliet Catholic Academy) led the Red Dragons with 21 assists, followed by Meadow Wittman (Colden/Springville Griffith Institute) with 18 assists. Carly Haegele (Commack) paced the team with three aces and 11 digs and Mikenzie Martens (Carthage) had nine digs. Prior to the match, Martens was recognized as the SUNYAC's Elite 20 Award Winner as the player at the SUNYAC finals site with the highest overall GPA. The sophomore physical education major has a 4.0 GPA.
 
Linda Rossi paced Geneseo (12-12) with 12 kills and a .320 attack percentage. Jackie Borland added six kills and four blocks, Jenna Garvey dished out 14 assists and Emily Haber had 11 digs.
 
The first set featured only one tie and one lead change (at 1-0 and 1-1), and the second set was tied only once at 4-4. In the third set, Geneseo lead 10-7 early, and the set was tied at 17-17. The Knights were within one at 21-20 before Cortland scored the final four points, including kills by Staats and Sturgess, and a block by Alexa Guedez (Rye/Rye Neck) and Staats on match point.