HAMBURG, NY – Hilbert College hosted their first annual women’s volleyball Invitational Tourney September 14th and for the several hundred fans in attendance it was a very entertaining afternoon and late evening watching the exciting play from all teams.
Hilbert found a way to battle back to capture their fifth win out of six tries this season when they beat SUNYIT in five sets (25-22, 27-29, 22-25, 25-14, 15-13) Freshman Allegra Johnson (15) and Chelsea Reischuck (11) finished with double-digit kills and Shannon Memminger had 38 assists. After long serves early in the match, the Hawks found their groove and finished with 17 service aces. SUNYIT’s Kaitlyn Harrington led with 15 kills. Taviot Jackowski completed 30 assists while Jessica Sass kept play alive with 13 digs.
Meanwhile on the next court, D’Youville College and Keuka College worked just has hard playing to a four set match. Keuka opened with a 25-23 win, D’Youville fought to a 31-29 victory before Keuka took the next two sets (25-23 and 25-19). Keuka’s Paige Golden had an impressive match earning 27 kills and 19 digs. Taylor Smith led the Storm with 22 digs and Jill Nolan passed for 38 assists. D’Youville had four players finish with double digit digs led by Lara Svensson and Alicia Porack’s 20 apiece. Luciana Payne earned 12 kills and Natalie Rieman finished with 30 assists (10 digs).
SUNYIT finished the day with a 3-0 sweep of Keystone (25-15, 25-22, 25-14). Keystone’s Shelby Morgan earned 14 kills and Chrissy Busichio led with 11 digs. Carol Busichio quarterbacked the team with 16 assists for the Giants. The big three, Harrington (15 kills), Sass (23 digs) and Jackowski (33 assists) led SUNYIT to a 1-1 day.
Keuka (5-3) went into another long four game set with Fredonia but came up on the short end of the straw this time. Fredonia has great position at the net earning 44 team kills and 10 blocks to squeak out the 25-20, 25-19, 23-25, 25-19 victory. Lindsey Olson finished with a double-double (13 kills and 10 digs) Meredith Smietana led five Blue Devils at the net with six blocks to pair with her 9 kills. And Kelly Edinger passed for 36 assists.
Hilbert moved to 6-1, the team’s best start in school history after their 3-0 late game over Keystone (0-9). Shelby led Keystone with 6 kills and 11 digs. The Hawks had seven different players credited with kills, led by Reischuck (6). Hilbert, again, served up 11 aces during the match.
And in the final match of the night, Fredonia started slow, but then kicked it back into gear. In their 4 set victory over D’Youville, Olsen finished with 13 kills and Lauren Hokaj 23 digs with Kelly Edinger setting for 36 assists.
The day’s recap can be found on the Hilbert Invitational Page along with Saturday, September 15th game times/pairings.