PITTSBURGH, PA – The RIT volleyball team (20-14) dropped a pair of matches to wrap up play at the Carnegie Mellon Mini Invitational on Saturday afternoon. RIT fell in three sets to regionally-ranked Messiah (20-5) and host Carnegie Mellon (22-5), ranked No 21 in the AVCA national poll.
 
Despite the two losses, RIT senior outside hitter Sarah Szybist (Colorado Springs, CO/Ramstein) moved into seventh place all-time in NCAA Division III history with 2,471 kills. She also leads all of Division III with 678 kills in 2016.
 
In the opening contest, RIT held a 15-14 lead in set one before Messiah rattled off 10 of the next 11 points to win 25-16. Messiah won set two, 25-9, before RIT battled back in set three before Messiah eventually earned a 25-23 victory.
 
Senior Sarah Szybist (Colorado Springs, CO/Ramstein) led the Tigers with 13 kills to go along with four solo blocks. Rebecca Bennett (Springfield, PA/Springfield) had a team-best eight digs, while Erin Parkinson (Carrollton, TX/W.T. White) added 20 assists and two service aces. Sarah DelVecchio (Galway, NY/Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons) and Joelle Marston (Roxbury, NJ/Roxbury) had three kills each, while Shelby Doheny (Moreau, NY/South Glens Falls) added three blocks.
 
Jane Underman hit .556 and recorded 11 kills, while Brooke Gallagher added a match-high 26 assists for Medaille. Emily Zellers added 10 digs and Danielle Weaver had three service aces.
 
"We had one poor stretch in the middle to end of set one that we need to mentally push through," said RIT head coach Jim Lodes. "Unfortunately, I feel we held on to that in to set two. In set three, we did a great job of competing and had opportunities to win that set. I liked that we were able to get back in the match."
 
Carnegie Mellon took the opening set 25-18, before rallying to take a wild second set, 32-30. RIT led throughout the set, but could not put the Tartans away. Carnegie Mellon would put the match away with a 25-23 win in set three.
 
RIT did have 49 kills to 40 for Carnegie Mellon, including a season-high 26 in set two.
 
Szybist led all players on the floor with 21 kills, while adding 11 digs, four blocks, and three assists. Anna Valentine (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Mendon) added 11 digs, five kills, five assists, and three service aces, while Erin Parkinson (Carrollton, TX/W.T. White) dished out 34 assists. Marston added eight kills, while DelVecchio finished with six, and Liz Wunder (Penn Yan, NY/Penn Yan Academy), five.
 
Lauren Mueller and Jackie Gibbons combined to lead the Tartans attack with 21 kills. Emily Newton added 31 assists, while Molly Higgins had 15 digs.. Casey Salandra had eight blocks and five kills.
 
"Overall, we had a good match versus a really good team," said Lodes. "We competed at a level that allowed us to have opportunities in sets two and three to extend the match. I'm hopeful that we'll take advantage of the lessons that we can take from this weekend and work on them in practice. That would allow us to continue to pursue achieving our end of season goals."

RIT plays its final home match of the 2016 season on Tuesday evening, as The College of Brockport comes to Clark Gym for a contest at 7 p.m.