ROCHESTER, NY — The RIT (13-9, 6-2 Liberty League) volleyball team dropped a thrilling five-set tightly-contested home match against Nazareth (14-5, 2-2 Empire 8) at Clark Gym on Wednesday evening.

The Golden Flyers and Tigers traded wins in the first two sets (25-21 Nazareth and 25-18 RIT), before the Tigers took a 2-1 match lead with a 25-17 victory in the third set. The Golden Flyers came back with two straight set victories, of 25-19 and 15-10, to complete the comeback victory.

Kelsey Milligan and Cady Messmer led the Nazareth offense with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Messmer also added 11 digs and a match-high four service aces. Maureen Thayer also pitched in on both sides, with a double-double, recording a team-best 34 assists and 14 digs. Celia Corder also contributed for the Golden Flyers with a match-high 28 digs.

For RIT, junior outside hitter Anna Valentine (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Mendon) notched a double-double, with 10 kills and a team-high 27 digs. Sophomore middle blocker Liz Wunder (Penn Yan, NY/Penn Yan Academy) fired down a career-best 17 kills on just 29 attacks, hitting an incredible .552, along with four blocks. Senior Sarah Szybist (Colorado Springs, CO/Ramstein), the Division III leader in kills, recorded a match-high 23 kills, nine digs and three blocks. Sophomore Erin Parkinson (Carrollton, TX/W.T. White) also added 49 assists on the night.

"We did some really good things tonight," said RIT head coach Jim Lodes. "Nazareth serves so well and our staff felt that our feet were great. They also run their middles as much as any team we play and we did many things to neutralize their attack. We also got our middles more involved."

The Tigers will return to action on Friday with a pair of Liberty League matches at Clarkson. At 6 p.m. they take on Skidmore, before facing the host Golden Knights at 8 p.m. On Saturday, they will place two matches at St. Lawrence, starting with the host Saints at 12 p.m. and Union at 2 p.m.

"I'm hoping that we will see that this can become a strength if we will work hard at balancing our offense," said Lodes. "This was a good match to help prepare us for our Liberty League matches this weekend. I hope we'll take advantage of the things we learned tonight."