Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y.—The Big Red volleyball team opened its Ivy season with a commanding 3-0 win over Columbia on Saturday night in Newman Arena. Cornell was led by Juliana Rogers who tallied a match-high 16 kills.

Columbia opened to an early 10-7 lead in the first set, but the Big Red came back to tie the match. Rogers notched seven kills while hitting .296 to help Cornell plunge ahead to a 25-17 win. Senior captain Hilary Holland had three block assists in the set and 12 assists.

In the second set, Cornell took an early lead and never looked back on its way to a 25-19 victory. Rogers once again led the Big Red offense with seven kills, and the Cornell hitters combined to hit .344 for the set. Junior libero Megan Mushovic led the defense with seven digs.

Columbia jumped out to an early lead again in the third, but Cornell tied the Lions at 15 all. The two teams traded the lead back and forth for the remainder of the match, but Cornell pulled ahead to a 25-22 victory to seal the match win. The Big Red hit .231, and Mushovic tallied seven digs and senior middle blocker Emily Borman had three block assists.

Borman joined Rogers in leading the Big Red offense with eight kills in just 11 attempts to hit an impressive .727 for the night. She also had a match-high five block assists. Mushovic totaled 20 digs for the day. Holland notched 38 assists for Cornell with four blocks.

Columbia was led by Amalia Viti with 16 kills. Megan Dillinger was next for the Lions' offense with six kills. Marisa Cornejo notched 24 assists with six digs.

Cornell will return to action next weekend when it will travel to New York City to play at Columbia on Saturday and Long Island on Sunday afternoon.