SWARTHMORE, PA. - The Cortland women's volleyball team lost two hard-fought matches during Day 2 of the Swarthmore College Garnet Invitational. The Red Dragons fell in four sets to nationally top-ranked Juniata on Saturday morning, losing the first set, 25-18, winning the second set, 25-21, and dropping the next two sets, 25-23 and 25-19. In the evening, the host Garnet edged Cortland in five sets, 25-27, 25-10, 25-18, 17-25, 15-10).
 
Cortland finished the season-opening tournament with a 1-2 record. The Red Dragons will host a tournament next weekend, facing Hartwick on Friday evening and Bowdoin and Rochester on Saturday afternoon.
 
Cortland went toe-to-toe with Juniata, the three-time defending NCAA Division III champion, in Saturday's opener. The Eagles won their 99th straight match, dating back to mid-September of 2022 (Juniata extended its streak to 100 straight wins later Saturday with a 3-0 victory over UMass Boston).
 
Juniata led the entire way in Set 1, but the second set featured eight ties and six lead changes. With the set tied at 17-17, Cortland ran off five straight points, including two kills by Lauren Millspaugh (Trumansburg/Charles O. Dickerson), a kill by Kira Pirrera (Hauppauge/Smithtown West) and an Emalee Ballou (Eden) ace, to take a 22-17 lead. Juniata got back to within 22-21 before kills by Pirrera and Ballou made it 24-21. Sanaiya Whitted (Poughkeepsie/Franklin D. Roosevelt) put down a kill to clinch the set for the Red Dragons.
 
An even closer third set included 15 ties and three lead changes. Cortland tied the set at 23-23 on a Ballou kill before Juniata won the last two points on a kill and an ace from Maggie Hayes. Cortland then jumped out to a 14-7 lead in the fourth set before the Eagles mounted a 10-1 run to take a 17-15 lead. The Red Dragons regained the lead at 18-17 after an Emma Reilly (Massapequa Park/Massapequa) block, but Juniata finished the set on an 8-1 run to win the match.
 
Pirrera finished with 11 kills, three aces and 11 digs, Ballou had 10 kills and seven digs, Millspaugh finished with seven kills and a .333 attack percentage and Whitted totaled seven kills. Reilly led the team with six blocks, four solo, Alyssa Rich (Rochester/Churchville-Chili) registered a team-best 23 digs along with three aces, Melissa O'Connor (Hauppauge) dished out 15 assists and had six digs, and Kayla Wasserman (Minisink/Minisink Valley) finished with 13 assists and eight digs.
 
Ava Gummer led Juniata with 17 kills, followed by Hayes with 13 and Audrey Muth with 12. Elizabeth Cleveland recorded 46 assists. The Eagles finished with a .260 team attack percentage (56 kills, 16 errors in 154 attempts) while limiting Cortland to a .069 attack percentage (38 kills, 28 errors in 145 attempts).
 
Against Swarthmore, Pirrera led Cortland with 13 kills and 17 digs and added three blocks. Whitted ended with 10 kills, Ballou had eight kills and Reilly amassed seven digs and four blocks, three solo. Wasserman finished with 10 assists and 12 digs.
 
Swarthmore (2-1) was led by Isabel Adams with 14 kills and Keira Miles and Alexia Enache with nine kills each. Emily Sun and Maya Sheridan finished with 19 and 17 assists, respectively, and Sheridan served four aces.
 
The opening set featured 11 ties and four lead changes. Cortland led 24-21 after a Pirrera kill, but the hosts scored the next three points to tie the set. After each team recorded a service error, Cortland closed out the set on kills by Wasserman and Ballou.
 
Swarthmore never trailed in the second or third set, with the only tie in each set coming at 1-1. Cortland took control early in the fourth set with a 9-2 run to take an 12-5 lead and the margin got no closer than five points after that. Swarthmore, however, never trailed in the fifth set after taking an early 6-2 lead. The Red Dragons were unable to draw any closer than three points the rest of the way.