CAMBRIDGE, MASS. – The Cortland women's volleyball team advanced to the NCAA Division III tournament second round for the third straight year with a 25-20, 25-22, 25-21 victory over Gettysburg College in a match as part of an eight-team regional hosted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Cortland (26-3), the third-highest team among "others receiving votes" in the latest AVCA Division III Top 25, will face MIT, ranked 19th nationally, in the second round Friday at 7 p.m. MIT swept Alfred University in Thursday's final match. Salisbury and nationally eighth-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps won Thursday's first two matches and will face each other Friday at 4:30 p.m.
Anna Pilkey (Ballston Spa) led Cortland with 14 kills and was second on the team with 14 digs.
Alexa Guedez (Mamaroneck/Rye Neck) recorded nine kills and no errors in 13 attempts for a .692 attack percentage and added two blocks.
Giovanna Rossi (Nichols/Tioga) finished with nine kills, a .333 attack percentage and two blocks,
Allie Sturgess (Stony Brook/Ward Melville) had nine kills and 10 digs, and
Kira Pirrera (Hauppauge/Smithtown West) had eight kills.
Ryan Hinshaw (Aurora, IL/Joliet Catholic Academy) led Cortland with 26 assists and three aces and
Samantha Rodriguez (Camarillo, CA/Adolfo Camarillo) had 21 assists and 13 digs.
Mikenzie Martens (Carthage) led the Red Dragons with 21 digs and
Lexy Bloss (York, PA/Dallastown Area) added three blocks and four kills.
Gettysburg (23-6) was led by Kylie Ulrich's eight kills and six kills each from Catherine Holtz and Erin Gonzalez. Mary Huegel finished with four blocks, Sophie Nasir dished out 17 assists and Chelsea O'Leary led the Bullets with 14 digs.
Cortland led 7-1 to open the first set before Gettysburg got back to within two at 10-8. The Red Dragons, however, scored five of the next six points, including three kills by Pilkey, and led by at least three points the rest of the set. Leading 23-20, Cortland wrapped up the set with kills from Rossi and Sturgess.
In the second set, Cortland mounted a 6-0 run to extend a 14-11 lead to 20-11. Pirrera had two kills during that stretch. Gettysburg answered with six straight points of its own to make it 20-17, and the Bullets trailed by only two at 23-21. Rossi's kill made it 24-21 and, after a Gettysburg block cut the deficit back to two, the Red Dragon won the set on a kill from Bloss.
The third set was tied nine times and featured four lead changes. The score was knotted at 21-21 before Cortland scored the final four points on a kill by Pirrera, two Gettysburg attack errors and a Pilkey kill for match point.
