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ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell volleyball team put up a good fight, but couldn't get past Saint Francis (Pa.) in an early morning match at the Cornell Invitational at Newman Arena. The Red Flash won the first two sets, 30-28 and 25-23, before the Big Red forced a fourth set with a 25-20 victory. The match nearly needed to go to a decisive game five, but Cornell couldn't come all the way back, falling to SFU in the fourth set, 25-21. The Big Red is back in action later this evening as it faces Lamar in the final game of the Cornell Invitational at 7 p.m.

For the second straight match, Kelly Hansen led the Big Red with 14 kills and just one error on 29 attempts for an impressive .448 hitting percentage. Deveney Pula and Kelly Marble both chipped in seven kills.

Jordan Reeder posted her second double-double of the weekend with 31 assists and 11 digs, while libero Risa Ka'awa led the team with 20 digs.

SFU picked up its first victory of the season thanks to the hitting of Elizabeth Williams (12), Lindsay Malloy (12) and Lauren Wingard (10), who each reached double-digit kills. Setter Logan Meinert handed out 32 assists, while Malloy tallied a team-high 19 digs.

The Red Flash jumped out to a quick 11-5 lead in the first set before Cornell used a 7-2 scoring run to claw its way back into the contest. During the run, the Big Red capitalized on numerous SFU mistakes, as well as a service ace from Ka'awa and a pair of kills by Hansen to make it a 13-12 game.

The teams battled back-and-fourth the rest of the way, resulting in 10 ties down the stretch, until a Big Red service error, followed by a kill from Williams handed the visitors the 30-28 victory.

The second set began as the first set had ended, with the teams trading points to 5-5 before an 8-2 scoring run by the Big Red gave Cornell the 13-7 advantage. Neither teams managed to get much offense generated after that and the Big Red maintained a five-point lead until several errors let the Red Flash back into the contest. Trailing 19-17, SFU's Amanda Zahumensky stepped into the service box and rattled off four straight aces to give the Red Flash its first lead of the set at 20-19.

Hansen put an end to Zahumensky's serving performance with a kill to knot the game at 20-20 and an attack error by Williams gave the one-point lead back to Cornell. SFU tied the game at 21-21 with a kill by Malloy, but Williams put the ensuing serve into the net to put the Big Red up, 22-21.

A pair of kills by Huas, sandwiched around a Cornell attack error, put SFU up, 24-22, and after a ball-handling error by Meinert, Wingard recorded a kill to give the Red Flash the 25-23 victory.

The Cornell offense came alive early in the third set and thanks to several SFU errors, as well as kills by Alice Cope, Alessa Cekauskas Reeder, Hansen and Pula, the Big Red got out to an early 8-5 lead.

The teams traded points until kills by Taylor Nieman, Cope and Kelly Marble stretched Cornell's lead to 13-9. SFU pulled as close as two points on three occasions, but that was as close as it would get the rest of the way as the Big Red rolled to the 25-20 victory.

Cornell got off to a great start in the fourth match, jumping all over the Red Flash early and building a 7-1 lead thanks to the strong serving of Pula and Ka'awa, which forced SFU into an unsettled offense. The Big Red eventually built an 11-3 advantage before the Red Flash used a prolonged 15-7 scoring run to knot the score at 18-18.

The teams battled to three more ties before a kill by Wingard, a Big Red error and two service aces by Williams ended the match as SFU took the 25-21 victory.