Box Score

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – On the second day of the Seton Hall Tournament, the Big Red volleyball team earned its first victory of the season with a thrilling five-set decision over Siena. Cornell won the first set, 25-22, before dropping the next two sets to the Saints (16-25, 13-25). Facing elimination, the Big Red stormed back and earned back-to-back two-point decisions (25-23, 15-13) to earn the 3-2 victory.
 
Cornell will look to even its record this afternoon when it wraps up the tournament vs. Rutgers at 4:30 p.m.
 
A trio of freshmen led the Big Red offense, with Kit McCarty (15), Emily Wemhoff (14) and Maddy Sroufe (14) all registering career highs for kills. Allysa Phelps came up just shy of her career-high with 50 assists to direct the offense, while libero Natasha Rowland posted a match-high 28 digs. With her 50 assists, Phelps moved into 14^th place in Cornell history for career assists (1,022), while Rowland's 28 digs moved her into 11^th place for career digs (905).
 
Siena (1-5) was led by Rachel Stoklosa and Shantraie Rodriguez with 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Haley Howell had 42 assists and Briana Flagg's 16 digs led four players' double-digit dig efforts.  
 
The Big Red (1-2) opened the first set in commanding fashion, jumping out to a 5-1 lead behind three kills from Wemhoff and one kill apiece from Sroufe and Macey Wilson. The Saints used some timely hitting and took advantage of a few Cornell errors to take their first lead of the set at 7-6, but a block from Wemhoff and Wilson opened up a 7-2 scoring run to put the Big Red up, 13-9. Seina continued to battle back but Cornell slowly built its lead to as many as five points (24-19). The Saints won the next three points, but a kill by McCarty handed Cornell the 25-22 victory.
 
In each of the next two sets, the teams battled back and forth before the Saints would use a run of 10-1 and 7-0, respectively, to put sets two and three away.
 
Cornell jumped out to a 9-5 lead in the fourth set, but the Saints came back to pull within one-point, 11-10. A kill by McCarty and a service ace from Rowlands gave the Big Red some breathing room at 13-10 and Cornell maintained a comfortable lead until consecutive errors cut the Big Red's lead to 20-19. Wemhoff won the next point for Cornell and the teams went back and forth before a kill by Sroufe gave the Big Red the 25-23 triumph.
 
The fifth set saw eight ties before a kill by Jasmine Robinson, followed by a block from McCarty and Gabrielle Ennis, and then a kill by Ennis, put Cornell up, 13-10. The Saints responded with a kill by Flagg and a service ace from Stoklosa to get back within one-point, but a pair of kills from Wemhoff, sandwiched around a kill from Rodriguez accounted for the 15-13 final.