ITHACA, NY – The RIT volleyball team (29-4) rolled to a 25-11, 25-23, 25-12 win over Nazareth College (23-13) in the round one of the 2018 NCAA Division III Volleyball Tournament from Ithaca College on Friday afternoon. The Tigers advance to the second round and will play the winner of Carnegie Mellon University at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
RIT, the No. 2 seed in the eight-team regional, hit .402 for the match, its second-best percentage of the season. In addition, the Tigers held a 48-31 edge in kills and had six aces to just two for No. 7 seed Nazareth. RIT's defense was also stout, recording 51 digs and six blocks.
Freshman outside hitter
Katie Hobler (Rochester, NY/Our Lady of Mercy), the Liberty League and AVCA New York Region Rookie of the Year, hit .513 with 23 kills, putting her over 500 on the season. She also added a match-high three service aces and two solo blocks for a 28-point day.
Senior setter
Erin Parkinson (Carrollton, TX/W.T. White) dished out 40 assists to go along with seven digs. Parkinson, the NCAA active leader in career assists, went over the 4,700-mark in the first set and now has 4,737 helpers in four seasons, six shy of moving into third place all-time at RIT.
RIT's middle-hitting duo of
Shelby Doheny (Moreau, NY/South Glens Falls) and
Kelly Waters (Burnt Hills, NY/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake) combined to hit .370 with 12 kills. Both women had six kills and two blocks.
Taylor Higgins (Peru, NY/Peru) hit .333 with seven kills and six digs, while
Sara Taylor (Tonawanda, NY/Kenmore East) added five kills and a pair of blocks. Defensively,
Maria Simonetti (Rochester, NY/Our Lady of Mercy) recorded a match-high 14 digs.
"We knew we were going to be in for another battle today and I was so proud of how we played against a very good team in Nazareth," said RIT head coach
Jim Lodes. "I thought we did a great job in all situations."
Carmen Sapp and Melissa Newcomb led the Golden Flyers with seven kills apiece. Jessica Barry added 21 assists and four blocks, while Celia Cordero finished with a team-best nine digs.
The Tigers hit a remarkable .536 in the opening set, slamming 16 kills with just one error on 28 attempts to go along with three aces and two blocks, as they rolled to a 25-11 win. Hobler recorded nine kills, two aces and a block in the opening set, while Parkinson dished out 15 assists. Defensively, Simonetti had six digs to lead the way.
Set two was much tighter, as RIT used a big run midway through before holding on to win, 25-23. With the match knotted at 13-13, RIT scored eight of the next 11 points to lead 21-16. Nazareth would not quit however, scoring five of the next six points to cut the RIT lead to 22-21. RIT would take advantage of three late Nazareth hitting errors to take the set.
RIT did not waste any time taking control of the third set, jumping out to leads of 11-2 and 15-3 en route to the 25-12 win. The Tigers hit .520 in the set with 16 kills.
The Tigers also defeated Nazareth in five sets from Clark Gym on Oct. 12. Hobler slammed a career-best 32 kills for the Tigers in that win. Nazareth leads the all-time series between the two schools, 43-32.
Today's win was the first in NCAA Tournament play for the Tigers since the 1999 season, when they advanced to the third round. RIT advanced to the national semifinals, placing third overall in 1993.
