From University of Rochester Athletics
The University of Rochester volleyball team picked up a key regional win over Montclair State, winning 3-0, at the New York Regional Challenge on Friday evening at Hunter College.
The Yellowjackets (21-9) won by set scores of 25-16, 26-24 and 25-19 over the Redhawks who drop to 21-8 on the season. Friday's matchup was a big one in terms of the latest NCAA New York Regional rankings with Rochester checking in at #9 in the region while Montclair was one spot ahead at #8.
Rochester's victory is its third straight while the Redhawks snap a three match winning streak of their own.
In the opening set, the Yellowjackets used a strong hitting performance (.423), coupled with a less than stellar hitting percentage from Montclair State (.042) to breeze to a nine point win. UR led wire-to-wire in the opener, starting with a quick 3-0 lead after kills from Alara Kocak, Clara Martinez and a hitting error from MSU.
The second set saw the Redhawks get up early, leading 5-2, but Rochester would battle back even at 7-7 with a five of seven point spurt. Montclair responded, getting up by as many as six at 16-10, but the Yellowjackets would use a run of five straight points to even the score at 17-17. Kocak and Martinez again provided key kills, along with a Martinez block, while Sara Apanavicius added a service ace. The Redhawks would stay in the set, eventually getting a set point, leading 24-23, but UR would win three straight points to win the set 26-24, capped off by an assisted block from Martinez and Kohler.
Rochester and Montclair State would battle back and forth in the third set, drawing even at 15-15, before the Yellowjackets would score six out of seven points to grab a five point lead at 21-16. Beth Ghyzel had two kills in the run while Alexandra Goldman added one along with Meghan Connor providing a service ace. Another block by Kohler and Martinez got UR to a match point and then Martinez finished off the match in style, smashing her eighth kill of the night.
Overall, Kocak led all players on the night with 11 kills. Alexandra Nelligan added nine while Martinez had eight and Ghyzel chipped in seven. Rochester had a total of 10 team blocks, with Goldman adding to her team leading total with five block assists on Friday. She now has 270 total blocks in her career and is eighth all-time at Rochester. Ghyzel and Kohler each had four assisted blocks while Martinez finished with one solo block and three assists.
UR also had eight aces on the night, including three from Courtney Vidovich, two from Nina Baek and one each from Kohler, Connor and Apanavicius. Kohler also had 34 assists while Connor was the only UR player with double-digit digs, finishing with 11.