Box Score ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red opened its season with a 3-0 loss to Buffalo in the opening round of the 2013 Cornell Invitational, held this evening in Newman Arena. The Bulls improved to 5-0 with the straight set victory, winning, 25-22, 25-14 and 25-14. Earlier in the day, Buffalo defeated Iona, 3-1, before Bucknell defeated the Gaels, 3-0.

The Cornell invitational continues tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 7, as The Big Red takes on Iona at 11 a.m. Bucknell will face Buffalo at 1:30 p.m., before the tournament concludes with the Big Red facing Bucknell at 4 p.m.

The Big Red was led by Rachel D'Epagnier, who hit .235 with seven kills and just three errors on 17 attempts. Senior Kelly Marble also finished with eight kills, while freshmen setter Alyssa Phelps had four kills and one error on nine attempts (.333) to go along with 22 assists. Libero Natasha Rowland posted eight digs, while Sierra Young and Kelly Reinke added seven digs apiece.

Buffalo was led by Tahleia Bishop and Christine Fritsche with 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Setters Dani Reinert (17 assists) and Taylor Pritchett (14 assists) ran the Bulls offense and libero Kelly Svoboda finished with a game-high 15 digs.

The first set started as a back and forth battle with the teams trading points to 4-4, before Buffalo rattled off five points behind the strong serving of Fritsche. During the run, the Bulls also got back-to-back kills from Bishop to build a 9-4 lead.

Cornell cut into the lead and made it a two-point game (14-12) and stayed within striking distance until eventually tying the match at 22-22 on a big kill from D'Epagnier. Unfortunately, the visitors closed out the match with three straight points to earn the 25-22 victory.

The Bulls carried that momentum into the second set, jumping out to a 5-1 lead, thanks to kills from Bishop, Liz Scott, and a service ace from Reinert.  A pair of kills by Breanna Wong got Cornell back into the match, making it a 7-4 contest. Cornell used a Buffalo service error to make it a two-point game (8-6) but Buffalo went on an 8-3 run to take control of the match as is rolled to the 25-14 victory.

The visitors got off to a 4-0 lead in the third set before consecutive kills from Marble got the Big Red on the board. The Bulls pushed their lead to 7-2 with kills from Scott and Fritsche, but the Big Red used kills by Marble and Macey Wilson, sandwiched around a service ace from Phelps to make it a 7-5 contest.

A kill by Fritsche ended the Cornell rally and started an 11-3 run that put the visitors up, 18-9. From there, the Bulls rolled to the 25-14 victory.