WEST POINT, N.Y. – Trudy Vande Berg, in her first season as The Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach Of Volleyball at Cornell, picked up her first career win as a head coach in the 2015 season opener, as the Big Red defeated William & Mary in a 3-2 thriller. Cornell had to come back twice in the match, as the Tribe won the first and third sets, to force a decisive game five, which the Big Red won, 15-12.  
 
Cornell had three hitters reach double-figures, with sophomore Emilay Wemhoff registering 15 kills. Classmate Kit McCarty tallied 12 kills and just five errors on 30 attempts for an impressive .233 hitting percentage.  Junior middle blocker Macey Wilson was even more impressive, connecting on .364 percent of her attempts with 10 kills and just two errors on 22 attempts.
 
Junior setter Alyssa Phelps finished with 42 assists and matched a team-high with 22 digs, as one-of-five Big Red to post double-digit digs. Libero Chelsea Sincox registered a career-high 22 digs, while Wemhoff (11), Natalie Danenhauer (11) and Kiley McPeek (10) all finished in double figures.
 
William & Mary (2-2) was led by Carolyn Albright (12-1-22; .500) as the only Tribe player to reach double-digit kills. Katie Kemp and Gabrielle Pe split the setting duties to finish with 21 and 19 assists, respectively, while Sara Zumbach had a team-high 20 digs.
 
The Tribe, with one tournament under its belt already, posted a decisive 25-12 victory in the first set before Cornell got its bearings and stormed back to win the second set, 25-21. W&M responded by winning the third set, 25-16, but Cornell fought back once again to take the 25-18 victory and force a fifth set.  
 
In the decisive set, Cornell got out to a quick 3-0 lead, thanks to a kill from Wemhoff and a service ace from McPeek. The Tribe responded with five unanswered points but another kill from Wemhoff, followed by a W&M attack error knotted the game at 5-5. A big kill from Wilson returned the lead to the Big Red, but the lead was short-lived as a kill from Dessi Koleva tied the contest again at 6-6. The teams traded points to 7-7, before a kill form Wemhoff, followed by a service ace from Phelps pushed Cornell's lead to 9-7.
 
W&M stormed back with a kill from Mallory Brickerd and a block by Albright and Koleva to tie the game at 9-9 and after trading poinst to 10-10 a Cornell attack error handed an 11-10 lead to the Tribe and forced Vande Berg to call a time out.
 
Back from the break, a kill from Wilson tied the game at 11-11 and began the decisive run that ended with a kill from McCarty to hand the Big Red the 15-12 victory.
 
Cornell is back in action shortly, as it takes on Iona this evening at 5 p.m.