GRANTHAM, PA. - The Cortland women's volleyball team finished 3-0 at the Messiah University Invitational after winning matches Saturday versus Gettysburg in four sets and Oberlin in three sets.
 
Cortland (7-4) returns to action at home next weekend. The Red Dragons will play Misericordia Friday at 6 p.m. and will host a tri-match Saturday with Cobleskill (11 a.m.; Senior Day) and Muhlenberg (3 p.m.).
 
Cortland defeated Gettysburg, 25-19, 22-25, 25-20, 25-21 to avenge a three-set loss to the Bullets at the Messiah tournament last year. Kira Pirrera (Hauppauge/Smithtown West) led the Red Dragons with a career-high matching 22 kills. She also finished with four blocks and nine digs. Emalee Ballou (Eden) recorded 12 kills with just one error in 25 attempts for a .440 attack percentage, and Lauren Millspaugh (Trumansburg/Charles O. Dickerson) ended with nine kills.
 
Melissa O'Connor (Hauppauge) posted 25 assists and nine digs and Samantha Rodriguez (Camarillo, CA/Adolfo Camarillo) had 19 assists and 11 digs. Anna Lynch (Rochester/Our Lady of Mercy) finished with five kills, a .308 attack percentage and a team-high six blocks. Alyssa Rich (Rochester/Churchville-Chili) registered 23 digs and Sanaiya Whitted (Poughkeepsie/Franklin D. Roosevelt) served three of Cortland's nine aces.
 
Gettysburg, which dropped to 6-5 after the match, was led by Clare Farrell with 11 kills and Mary Huegel with nine kills and four blocks.
 
Cortland trailed 15-13 in the first set but strung together eight straight points, including two kills by Millspaugh, to take a 21-15 lead. The margin grew to eight at 24-16 before Gettysburg scored three in a row. Whitted's kill ended the set. Gettysburg used a 4-1 run in the second set to pull away from a 17-17 tie, although Cortland got back to within two points twice before Farrell's kill closed the set.
 
The Red Dragons led 10-4 to start the third set and led by at least three the rest of the stanza. The fourth set featured 12 ties and four lead changes. With the score knotted at 18-18, Cortland tallied four straight points, two on kills by Ballou, on its way to the victory.
 
Cortland closed its day with a 25-22, 25-17, 25-14 win over Oberlin in the first-ever meeting between the programs. Pirrera finished with 11 kills, Lynch had a career-best 10 kills, a .350 attack percentage and four blocks, and Ballou totaled nine kills. Lily Coan (Sayville) paced the Red Dragons with 16 assists, Bianca Sapano (Floral Park/Kellenberg Memorial) served five aces, and Rich led the team with 16 digs.
 
Oberlin (2-11), which lost in five sets to Messiah earlier in the day, received six kills from Brylie Peters and nine digs from Josie Macdonald.
 
The first set featured seven ties and three lead changes. With the score tied at 21-21, Cortland took the lead on a Lynch kill and an Oberlin error. The Yeowomen scored the next point, but Cortland closed the set on a Millspaugh kill and Ballou ace. The Red Dragons never trailed in the second and third sets.