ONEONTA, NY – Junior Kaylee Kelly led the Nazareth College Women's Volleyball team with 24 kills and also had 11 digs as the Golden Flyers took an early 2-1 lead in the match against Hartwick Saturday afternoon.

The Hawks (9-2 overall, 1-1 E8) were trailing late in the fourth set as well but rallied to win a close 26-24 decision and force the fifth set. Nazareth (5-6, 1-1 E8) fell behind early and Hartwick put together an impressive attack to win the tie-breaker 15-10 for the overall 3-2 victory in the Empire 8 match at Hartwick.

A kill by Kelly late in the fourth set gave Nazareth a 24-22 lead but Hartwick rallied for three straight points to take a 25-24 lead and after a Nazareth timeout, won the set and evened the match with a service ace.

Hartwick raced to a 4-1 lead in the fifth set but Nazareth rallied to trim the lead to two points at 12-10 before Hartwick used a pair of kills and a Nazareth attack error to win the final set. In the fifth set, the Hawks had eight kills in 10 attempts without an error for an impressive .800 percentage in the tie-breaker.

Kelly led Nazareth with 24 kills to tie her career-best and also chipped in 11 digs. Freshman Tessa Grover had 13 kills, 31 assists and 10 digs and fellow freshman Zoe Tylipakis added 12 kills and nine digs. Freshman Ella Kules added 29 assists and eight digs while senior McKenzie Hart had a team-leading 25 digs. Senior Olivia Quick had nine kills and a team-leading .308 attack percentage.

Nazareth will continue Empire play Wednesday at Keuka with a 7 p.m. match and face Hilbert in a non-conference match Thursday at home in Kidera Gymnasium.