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Rochester Battles Its Way Past RIT, 3-0

Rochester Battles Its Way Past RIT, 3-0

From University of Rochester Athletics

Alara Kocak had a career high 16 kills to help Rochester post a 3-0 women's volleyball victory over RIT on Wednesday evening.

The Yellowjackets held on to win game one, 25-22, rallied to win game two, 26-24 (after trailing 7-0), then won game three, 25-16.

Clara Martinez added nine kills for Rochester. Beth Ghyzel had six. Aimee Kohler and Alexandra Nelligan had three apiece. Martinez had six blocks (one solo, five assists). Kohler, Alexandra Goldman, and Ghyzel had two apiece.

Rochester improved to 11-5 overall. It was the third win for UR in the last four matches. Rochester heads to Carnegie Mellon this weekend for the first University Athletic Association round robin. The Yellowjackets play 7th-ranked Emory on Saturday, followed by a match against Case Western Reserve. UR plays NYU on Sunday.

RIT is 12-6 overall. The loss snapped a three-match winning streak for the Tigers. They had won five of their last six coming into the Palestra.

Meghan Connor had 17 digs for Rochester. Kohler had seven, as did Sara Apanavicius. Courtney Vidovich had six digs. Kohler registered 32 assists.

For RIT, Sarah Szybist had 11 kills and 10 digs. Liz Wunder had seven kills. Erin Parkinson had 29 assists. Anna Valentine had nine digs for RIT and Rebecca Bennett had eight digs.

In game one, Kocak had three kills and Ghyzel had two in a 6-0 run that opened an 11-4 lead. Kocak's kill gave Rochester a 19-13 lead later in the set before RIT went on a 4-0 run (two kills by Wunder to start it) to get within 19-17. It stayed tight throughout. Szybist's kill pulled the Tigers within 24-22, but Kocak had a kill set up by Kohler for the 25th point.

RIT opened game two on a 7-0 run. Valentine's kill put the margin at eight, 13-5. UR ran off 10 straight points, highlighted by three kills from Martinez and a block assist. Down by three (19-16), RIT ran off six straight for a 22-19 lead. A serving error by Rochester left RIT ahead, 24-22, before UR closed on a 4-0 spurt to win it – two kills from Ghyzel and one from Martinez. The winning point came off an attack error.

Rochester pulled away slowly in the third game. A 7-2 spurt later in the game put Rochester in front, 21-14.