CORTLAND, N.Y. - The Cortland women's volleyball team had its 11-match winning streak come to an end as the Red Dragons lost at home to nationally 16th-ranked Ithaca in four sets. The Bombers won the first set, 25-13, Cortland won the second set, 25-16, and Ithaca won a pair of tight sets to clinch the win, 25-21 and 25-22.
 
Cortland (16-5) will continue play Saturday in its home quad tournament with matches against Stevens Institute at 11 a.m. and Bard College at 3 p.m., with Stevens facing Bard in between those two matches at 1 p.m. Ithaca (16-3) defeated Stevens in four sets in Friday's opening match.
 
Kira Pirrera (Hauppauge/Smithtown West) led Cortland with 21 kills and 28 digs. Lauren Millspaugh (Trumansburg/Charles O. Dickerson) and Erica Arroyo (Nesconset/Smithtown West) each totaled eight kills, while Sanaiya Whitted (Poughkeepsie/Franklin D. Roosevelt) and Emalee Ballou (Eden) had six kills apiece.
 
Samantha Rodriguez (Camarillo, CA/Adolfo Camarillo) finished with 21 assists and eight digs and Melissa O'Connor (Hauppauge) had 19 kills, 12 digs and a team-high five aces. Arroyo finished with three aces and Alyssa Rich (Rochester/Churchville-Chili) totaled 22 digs. Millspaugh paced the Red Dragons with six blocks, three solo, and Whitted had four blocks.
 
Naomi Clauhs led Ithaca with 19 kills, followed by Brianna Owen with 10 kills. Wesley Slavin dished out 38 assists, Ellie Benedict totaled 22 digs and Ella Graper had a team-best four blocks.
 
Ithaca took a 16-4 lead in the opening threat on the way to an easy victory, but Cortland came back with a convincing win in the second set after pushing out to a 16-7 lead. The third set was tied at 13-13, and Cortland was still within a point at 19-18 before Ithaca scored three of the next four points. The Red Dragons were within two at 22-20 after a kill by Ballou, but the Bombers scored three of the last four points, two on kills by Clauhs.
 
The fourth set was tied only once at 1-1, and Ithaca didn't trail from that point. However, Cortland stayed within striking distance most of the way. It was 19-16 before Ithaca went on a 3-1 run to go up 22-17. Cortland did fight back to within two again at 24-22 after a Ballou kill and a block by Ballou and Emma Reilly (Massapequa Park/Massapequa), but Clauhs' kill end the match.