Stevens Box l RIT Box
E8 crossover site
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The Golden Flyers rallied to defeat RIT in its second match of the second Empire 8 women's volleyball cross-over weekend, which Nazareth is hosting. Freshman Amy Johnson had a team-high 13 kills against the Tigers while senior Katelynn Reed had a team-high 11 kills for the Golden Flyers in the match against Stevens.

Nazareth defeated RIT in four sets (21-25, 25-22, 25-16, 25-23) after falling to Stevens in five sets (25-22, 25-16, 22-25, 8-25, 15-10).

After the match against Nazareth, Stevens improved to 8-0 in Empire 8 cross-over action and 21-7 overall. The Ducks, winners of 61 straight conference matches, clinched the top seed and hosting rights for next month's conference tournament.

RIT drops to 3-4 in the conference matches and 18-18 overall after playing the Golden Flyers. Nazareth is 5-1 in the conference matches and to 20-11 overall after playing the Tigers and the Ducks.

In the match against RIT, junior Kristi Custer and sophomore Ashlee Travis added eight kills and seven kills, respectively. Reed also tallied seven kills against the Tigers, along with three service aces. Senior Kate Zwickl had a team-high 21 assists, in addition to eight digs and four aces. Freshman Brittany Crocetti contributed 10 assists and four aces.

Junior Megan Rogers and senior Mallorie Clary helped solidify the Golden Flyers' defense as they recorded 16 digs and 13 digs, respectively. Travis also accumulated five assisted blocks.

The Tigers had 10 kills from Rebecca Moore and nine kills from Katie Cooper. Melanie Springer and Cristine Schiavello tallied 16 assists and 14 assists, respectively. Audrey DiPoala finished with a team-high 15 digs.

Against the Ducks, Stevens tallied the final points in fifth set to hold on to the 3-2 victory in the Empire 8 cross-over match. Stevens led through the first two matches, but the Golden Flyers rallied to win the third match. Nazareth easily controlled the fourth match thanks to a .500 hitting percentage and six service aces from sophomore Leah Farrell. Farrell finished the match with eight aces.

In addition to the kills from Reed, Nazareth received 10 kills apiece from Custer and freshman Aubrey Cooke. Travis added eight kills while Johnson contributed six kills. Zwickl tallied a team-high 36 assists, and Clary totaled a team-high 21 digs.

Maggie Kowalska had a match-high 23  kills and Sara Budar recorded a match-high 47 assists for the Ducks. Julia Reilly also had 24 digs to lead Stevens.

Nazareth continues the cross-over weekend Sunday with a match against Hartwick (12:30 p.m.) and Ithaca (3 p.m.)