Women's Volleyball | 10/16/2012 8:39:00 PM

Box Score

PITTSFORD, NY - The RIT volleyball team (21-11) used 10 service aces to defeat St. John Fisher in three sets by scores of 25-16, 25-23, 25-12 at Manning Napier Varsity Gym on Tuesday evening. Cat Sullivan (Lehman, PA/Lake-Lehman) and Arielle Pariente (Twinsburg, OH/Twinsburg) paced the offense with seven kills each while Briana Neuberger and Katie Cooper (New Canaan, CT/New Canaan) combined for six of the 10 aces.

The Cardinals (4-17) jumped out to leads of 4-0 and 9-5 early in the first set but the Tigers would quickly erase the deficit. Keyed by back-to-back aces from Cooper, the Tigers would take the lead for good. RIT scored 12 of the last 16 points of the set to claim a 25-16 victory. Neuberger also added consecutive aces and Christina Worth (Valencia, CA/Valencia) set up Dana Fang (Armonk, NY/Fox Lane) for the set point. As a team, RIT hit .333 in the set.

The second set was back and forth, with each team going on extended scoring streaks. With the score tied at six, RIT would score three unanswered points to grab the lead. Fisher would respond behind the serving of Megan Miller to claim the next eight points and take a 14-9 lead. RIT rebounded to score six of the next seven and tie the score at 15. The set would also feature ties at 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 as each team tried to gain the upper hand. Kills by Amanda White (Watertown, NY/Watertown) and Cooper were the decisive blows as RIT earned a 25-23 victory. 

The Tigers ran out to a 9-3 lead in the third set and never looked back. The Cardinals took a timeout to regroup with the score at 13-7 but they wouldn't slow RIT's attack. The Tigers scored nine of 11 points, including eight unanswered, and breezed to a 25-12 victory to ensure the sweep.

Sullivan hit .500 for the match and Cooper added six kills and four digs. Bethany Davis (Blasdell, NY/Frontier) led the defense with 10 digs, while Worth dished out 27 assists.

The Tigers hit .320 as a team for the evening and 10 different Tigers recorded a kill.

With the win, Head Coach Jim Lodes moves within one of tying the school record for career victories. He will look to achieve that feat as the Tigers travel to St. Lawrence to take on Union and Clarkson in Liberty League play on Friday night. The Union match will begin at 5 p.m. with the Clarkson contest beginning at 7:30 p.m..