ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Nazareth Women's Volleyball defeated cross-town rival, St. John Fisher, in four sets Wednesday evening for the first time since 2018, to remain undefeated in conference play (25-23, 25-15, 16-25, 25-23).
 
The Golden Flyers are now 12-8 overall and 7-0 in conference play and are still leading the conference.
 
The first set was very back and forth, with a total of six lead changes and 11 ties. Late in the game, at a score of 20-18 in favor of St. John Fisher, Nazareth was able to go on a four-point run to put the pressure back on the Cardinals. SJF was able to close the gap at 23, but a kill from Alana Lucey followed by a Cardinals error allowed the Golden Flyers to take the first set 25-23.
 
Nazareth seemed to go into set number two wanting to prove something and commanded the set from the beginning. A couple of nicely strung together runs allowed Nazareth to break away from the Cardinals early. One run included four back-to-back kills by Tessa Grover (assisted by Jenna Mattison), Leah Fusilli (assisted by Ella Kules), Zipporah Sparkman (assisted by Kules), and Zoe Tylipakis (assisted by Ruth Jackson). Nazareth took the second set 25-15.
 
The third set was much different for Nazareth. At a 4-3 score in favor of the Golden Flyers, SJF went on a seven-point run and created a deficit that Nazareth could not quite close the gap on. The Cardinals closed the set on a three-point run at a score of 25-16 in favor of SJF.
 
In the fourth and final set, Nazareth held the lead from the beginning all the way until the Cardinals finally closed the gap at 18. The Golden Flyers went on a three point runs with two kills from Grover and one from Lucey, all assisted by Kules, to put the pressure back on SJF, who were not able to fight their way back. The game concluded with a Fusilli kill from Mattison at a final set score of 25-23.
 
Grover led the offense with 15 kills, followed closely behind by Fusilli with 13. Kules added a whopping 28 assists, while Grover added 10 herself. Defensively, Fusilli led the charge with 17 digs, along with 13 from Tylipakis, and 12 from Mattison.
 
The Golden Flyers will head to SUNY Poly on October 25^th for a 7 p.m. conference game.