Tournament site | Penn match | NYU match
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Senior Kelsey Milligan surpassed the 1000-career kill milestone with her first of nine kills against New York University but it was not enough as the Nazareth College volleyball team dropped a 3-1 match to the Violets after soundly defeating Penn College, 3-0, 0n the first day of competition at the New York Regional Challenge Tournament at Kidera Gymnasium.
The tournament, co-hosted with RIT continues Saturday with six matches at Kidera Gymnasium including an 11 a.m. Nazareth matchup with Montclair State and a 3 p.m. match for the Golden Flyers against Lycoming College.
In the Penn College (1-21) victory, Nazareth (20-11) controlled the match from the start and won by set scores of 25-11, 25-12 and 25-19. In the second match of the evening, the Golden Flyers won the opening set 25-19 but fell to NYU (16-13) in the next three sets by scores of 25-20, 25-22 and 25-21.
Against Penn College, senior Madison Joseph led the offense with eight kills and a .357 attack percentage while sophomore Jessica Barry handed out 17 assists and delivered three aces while fellow sophomore Savannah Bothner had four aces and a team leading eight digs.
Against NYU, Joseph added 11 kills and Milligan finished with nine while senior Carmen Sapp and junior Delaney Martin each contributed eight. Barry had 31 assists and Bothner finished with 27 digs.
Milligan reached the 1000-kill mark in the first set with her kill to give the Golden Flyers a 14-9 lead as Nazareth built the early lead and maintained the momentum through the opening set.
The second set was close throughout until NYU rallied for five consecutive points late in the set to surge ahead 23-18.
In the third set, Nazareth held leads of 10-5 and 15-7 but NYU rallied again to score nine straight points to take a 16-15 edge. The score remained tight until NYU scored the final three points after the teams were knotted at 22-22 for the win.
In the fourth, Nazareth again had a lead at 13-9 but surrendered the lead with another NYU rally. With the Golden Flyers leading by a point at 19-18, NYU rallied again scoring five of the next six points to take a late 23-20 lead and hung on for the win with a pair of kills to close out the match.
