Box Score BROOKLYN – On the opening day of the Blackbird Invitational, the Big Red volleyball team gave LIU Brooklyn all it could handle, but came up just short in a five-set thriller. Game scores were 22-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-23, 12-15. Cornell will wrap up the invitational tomorrow when it faces Fairfield at 12:30 p.m., before taking on Colgate at 4 p.m.

Kelly Marble finished with 23 kills on 67 attempts, while Breanna Wong had 17 kills and just eight errors on 36 attempts for a solid .250 hitting percentage. Rachel D'Epagnier was solid at the net with a team-best .296 hitting percentage (10-2-27), to go along with five blocks. Freshman Alyssa Phelps tallied 57 assists to go along with six digs and five blocks. Libero Natasha Rowland finished with 33 digs.

The Blackbirds were led by Annika Foit with 22 kills and just six errors on 58 attempts for an impressive .276 hitting percentage. Also registering double-digit kills was Jessica Rice and Tamara Ignijic. Setter Vera Djuric tallied 43 assists and 19 digs, while Foit posted a team-best 22 digs.

The first set was a back and forth battle, but the Blackbirds managed to keep a slim lead throughout, until a slim 4-0 run by Cornell that featured a kill form Wong and Marble gave the Big Red its first lead of the match at 17-16. LIU called a timeout to regroup and consecutive kills by Foit returned the lead to the home team, which went on to win, 25-22.

In the second set, Cornell got out to a lead early on, but four unanswered points gave the Blackbirds a 9-5 advantage. A kill by Wong stopped the run and Cornell kept within striking distance before finally using back-to-back kills from Sarah Kramer and Brittany Fox to knot the game at 18-18. A Big Red service error returned the lead to LIU, but after trading points, another kill from Kramer tied the game at 21-21. Kramer then registered a service ace, followed by a kill from D'Epagnier to put the visitors up, 23-21. Ignij and Wong traded kills and the Big Red earned the 25-22 victory off a Blackbird service error.

The third set was a virtual deadlock throughout with neither team holding more than a two-point advantage until a kill by Ignjic broke a 19-19 tie and sparked a 6-0 run to end the set.

As close as the third set was, the fourth proved to be the closest of the match with 11 ties and five lead changes. This time, however, it was the Big Red that closed out strong, breaking a 20-20 tie and outscoring LIU 5-3 down the stretch for the 25-23 victory.

In the final set, the Blackbirds jumped out to a commanding 11-6 lead but Cornell fought back, using kills by Wong, D'Epagnier and Marble to make it a 12-10 contest. The Blackbirds ended the threat with a kill from Sandy Zhao and a Cornell hitting error gave the home team match point. Back-to-back blocks, first by Phelps and D'Epagnier, and then by Phelps and Fox, made it a 14-12 game, but Ignjic ended the match with a kill on the next play.