HOBOKEN, NJ - The RIT volleyball team (21-16) dropped its opening match at the New York State Regional Challenge at Stevens to Rowan University (15-15) in four sets, but rebounded to defeat New York University (19-16) in a five-set thriller on Saturday to wrap up the regular season.

In the opener against Rowan, RIT dropped the first two sets, 25-17, 25-21, before winning the third set, 25-21. The fourth and final set was a back-and-forth affair, before Rowan pulled out the 27-25 victory to take the match. Overall, the match featured 32 ties and 17 lead changes.

Sophomore Sarah Szybist (Chicago, IL/Ramstein) led the Tigers offensively with 21 kills and two blocks, while Sara Martin (Rochester, NY/West Irondequoit) and Laiz Novaes (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Centro Educational) had 10 kills apiece. Novaes added a team-best four service aces to go along with seven digs. Emma Dowdy (Cocoa, FL/Edgewood) chipped in with 44 assists and three kills, while Bethany Davis (Blasdell, NY/Frontier) recorded a team-best 14 digs. Davis, Novaes, Amy Van Hienen (Castor, Alberta/Gus Wetter), Dowdy, Rebecca Bennett (Springfield, PA/Springfield), and Szybist all recorded at least seven digs in the match.

Morgan Mende led Rowan with 11 kills. Mary-Grace Testa and Rebecca Dantonio combined for 32 assists, while Jennifer Vorel added 17 digs.

I feel that in our maturation as a team, we need to find ways to compete on every play and limit unforced errors especially at crunch time," said RIT head coach Jim Lodes. "It was a good match but one I feel we can compete better in."

RIT won the first set over NYU, 25-14, before the Violets came back to win sets two and three, 25-14, 25-16. RIT took the fourth set, 25-19, and withstood a furious NYU rally to win the fifth and final set, 15-13.

Szybist led the attack with 26 kills to go along with eight digs. She now has 676 kills this season, second most all-time in one season at RIT. Novaez hit .429 with 11 kills, nine digs, and two blocks, while Dowdy added 38 assists. Van Hienen had a teamm-best four service aces, while Davis added eight digs.

Sonya Bray led the Violets with 14 kills, while MaTia Hughes added 15 digs. Cassidy Jordan had four service aces, while Katie Robinson had a team-high 20 assists.

"I'm really proud of our efforts in sets four and five," said Lodes. "It would have been easy to stay down after NYU's good play in sets two and three and we really fought with everyone contributing to the energy and success on the court. This was a really good win and should have us believing that anything is achievable next weekend."

The Tigers will compete next weekend at the Liberty League Championships, hosted by Clarkson University. RIT, seeded third, will play second seeded St. Lawrence in one semifinal on Friday. Clarkson and Union will play in the other semifinal.