ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red volleyball team started the second half of Ivy League play with a commanding 3-1 win over Columbia this afternoon at Newman Arena. Cornell won the first two sets, 25-18 and 25-21, before the Lions earned a hard fought 29-27 win in the third. Columbia's comeback was short-lived, however, as the Big Red dominated the fourth set, 25-15, to win the match.   
 
Cornell (9-9, 3-5 Ivy) was led by juniors Kit McCarty and Emily Wemhoff with 16 and 12 kills, respectively. Wemhoff also posted a team-best .310 hitting percentage (12-3-29), but McCarty was right behind at .306 (16-5-36). Sophomore Carla Sganderlla added nine kills, while Jenna Phelps finished with seven and added three block assists and three service aces.
 
Senior Macey Wilson chipped in six kills, hitting .250 (6-1-20) and finished with nine total blocks (eight assists, one solo) to move into sixth place overall in Cornell history in career total blocks (337).
 
Senior setter Alyssa Phelps finished with 41 assists to move into second place all-time in Cornell history, surpassing Vanessa Richlin '00. Now with 2,940 career assists, she is a mere 60 helpers away from becoming just the second player in Big Red history to reach the 3,000-assist plateau.  Phelps also added nine digs, four block assists and four kills (4-1-10; .300) to the Big Red cause.
 
Defensively, libero Kiley McPeek had 16 digs, while defensive specialist Shae Bauchens added 11.
 
Columbia (10-8, 5-3 Ivy) was led by Chichi Ikwuazom with 12 kills and a .348 hitting percentage (12-4-23), while Anja Malesevic had 11. Ikwuazom also finished with five block assists in front of libero Cassie Wes with a match-high 23 digs.
 
As a team, the Lions hit just .094 (40-27-138), and recorded seven service errors with no aces in the match.
 
The Big Red is on the road next weekend when it travels to Yale and Brown on Friday, Oct. 28 and Saturday, Oct. 29, respectively.