Tournament site | Case Western box | RIT box
Updated stats
FREDONIA, N.Y. -- Nazareth won two five-set matches on Saturday at the Blue Devil Invitational, hosted by Fredonia. The Golden Flyers outlasted Case Western, then defeated RIT. The scores of the Case Western match were 25-20, 23-25, 25-19, 22-25, 15-10. Against RIT the Golden Flyers won with the scores of 25-23, 23-25, 25-22, 20-25, 15-7. Senior Aubrey Cooke amassed a team-high 41 assists in each of Nazareth's Saturday matches to earn all-tournament honors.

With the victories, Nazareth improves to 16-8 overall. The Spartans fall to 15-6 overall after falling to the Golden Flyers. RIT fell to 17-9 after falling to Nazareth in the third-place match.

Sophomores Olivia Harrigan and Kassandra Buseck each tallied 10 kills to lead Nazareth's attack. In the three sets they won, the Golden Flyers recorded hitting percentages of .216, .286, and .211. Nazareth had 10 kills and two errors in the first set, 13 kills and three errors in the third set, and seven kills and three errors in the fifth set.

In addition to the kills from Harrigan and Buseck, the Golden Flyers received nine kills apiece from senior Amy Johnson and sophomore Maria Allocco to establish a balanced attack. Sophomore Chelsea Beecher chipped in five additional kills.

Case Western was able to stay in the sets with a 12-6 advantage in service aces. Allocco led the Golden Flyers with four of the Golden Flyers' aces.

Senior Brittany Crocetti recorded a team-high 28 digs. Cooke contributed 12 digs, and Harrigan added 10 digs. Harrigan also made an impact at the net with three solo blocks and three assisted blocks. Johnson added nine assisted blocks for the Golden Flyers.

Against RIT, Allocco tallied a team-high 15 kills, followed by Johnson with 12 kills. Harrigan and Buseck each added 10 kills and Beecher finished with six kills. The Golden Flyers finished with at least 11 kills in each of the five sets except for the fourth set, in which Nazareth had eight kills but only two hitting errors. In the first set, Nazareth recorded a hitting percentage of .171 (14 kills, seven errors), followed by a .214 hitting percentage in the second set (11 kills, five errors), .150  in the third set (13 kills, seven errors), .231 in the fourth set, and .333 (10 kills, one error) in the fifth set.

Defensively, Cooke finished with a team-high 16 digs, while Crocetti recorded 14 digs and Beecher contributed 11 digs. Johnson amassed a total of 10 bolcks with three solo blocks and seven assisted blocks. The Tigers finished with a 7-5 edge in service aces. Johnson led the Golden Flyers with three aces.

The Golden Flyers host Brockport at 11 a.m. and Medaille at 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 13th in their next matches.