ROCHESTER, NY — The RIT women's volleyball team (9-4, 3-1 Liberty League) bounced back with two victories on day two of Liberty League play at Clark Gym on Saturday. The Tigers opened with a three-set victory over Bard (2-10, 0-4 Liberty League), before defeating Vassar (7-6, 3-1 Liberty League) in four sets. The opening win over the Raptors gave head coach Jim Lodes his 300th career victory at RIT.

Lodes is now 301-177 in 12 seasons at the university.

The Tigers swept the match over Bard with set scores of 25-19, 25-12 and 26-24. Down 24-22 in the third, RIT used a 4-0 run to finish the match to complete the come-from-behind set three victory.

Fourteen RIT players saw the floor during the match. Sophomore Sara Taylor (Tonawanda, NY/Kenmore East) slammed a match-high 11 kills, while hitting .450, while senior Sarah Szybist (Colorado Springs, CO/Ramstein) played in just two sets, but had 10 kills on just 15 attacks (60 percent). Junior Montana Vescovi (Le Roy, NY/Le Roy) finished the match with 30 assists, while Rebecca Bennett (Springfield, PA/Springfield) had eight digs and Maria Simonetti (Rochester, NY/Our Lady of Mercy) and Arielle Pariente (Twinsburg, OH/Twinsburg) both had three service aces to lead the way.

"I thought we did a good job of having many contributors," said Lodes. "A lot of different players did good things for us today, as we stayed on task and bounced back well from an emotional match last night."

For Bard, Victoria Chou had eight assists and seven digs, while Sofia Koukia finished with five kills and one dig.

In the second match, Vassar pushed the Tigers to four sets, where RIT ultimately came out with a 3-1 victory (25-16, 28-26, 20-25, 25-21). The Tigers fought back to take the second set after Vassar had a 24-20 lead. A 4-0 lead would tie the set and send it to extra time, where the Tigers ultimately pulled away 28-26. After dropping the third set, the Tigers saw themselves in a hole, down in set four 17-13, but finished on a 12-4 run and closed out the match.

"Overall, I'm very pleased with our weekend, as we did a lot of good things," said Lodes. "To come out of it 3-1 and have the chance to control our own destiny in league play is great. We learned a lot about what we need to do to succeed and we'll take that and work on it before next week's Liberty League action."

RIT had 57 kills to Vassar's 39, while hitting .219. RIT also won the battle of the digs, 62-55.

Szybist finished with a match-high 30 kills and 16 digs, marking her fourth match of the season with 30 or more kills. Sophomore Erin Parkinson (Carrollton, TX/W.T. White) had 45 assists, while junior Anna Valentine (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Mendon) had 14 digs, eight kills and three service aces. Freshman Shelby Doheny (Moreau, NY/South Glens Falls) had a career-high five blocks to go along with four kills, while Taylor added 10 kills. Bennett and Simonetti combinned for 23 digs.

For Vassar, Devan Gallagher picked up 18 kills and hit .395, while Annie MacMillan assisted on her teammates' kills 30 times. Sierra Tobin (16 digs) and Jorden Schreeder (12 digs) led the defense for Vassar.

The Tigers will return to league action once again next weekend, facing Vassar and Skidmore at Bard on Friday, before taking on Bard and Union at Vassar on Saturday.