LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Big Red volleyball team was nearly unstoppable, hitting a season-high .327 as a team and earning its first sweep of the year, when it defeated the host Bison, 25-21, 25-18, 25-15, in the opening round of the Bucknell Invitational this evening. Cornell (4-3) returns to action tomorrow when it takes on Buffalo at 10 a.m. and Oakland at 4 p.m.
 
A pair of Big Red outside hitters – Carla Sganderlla and Emily Wemhoff – finished with 10 kills and one error apiece, as Sganderlla hit a blistering .562 (10-1-16) and Wemhoff connected on .391 (10-1-23). Not to be outdone, the middle blocking tandem of Jenna Phelps (8-0-15) and Macy Wilson (4-0-10) hit .480 with no errors, and rightside hitter Kit McCarty chipped in seven kills while hitting .263 (7-2-19).  Phelps also finished with six blocks.
 
Senior setter Alyssa Phelps and sophomore setter Gabby Goodall handed out 19 and 16 assists, respectively, with Goodall finishing with seven digs. Freshman libero Lily Barber had a team-high eight digs.
 
Bucknell (2-8) was led by Bridgette Holland's nine kills and .357 hitting percentage, but the rest of the Bison struggled, as the team hit just .125 on the evening.
 
The first set was the most competitive of the night and the home team jumped out to an early 10-6 lead. Cornell pulled back to even at 11-11, but the Bison eventually used a 7-1 run to go up, 19-13 on a block by Selby Schnobrich. A service error by Blake Bucholz handed the ball to Maddy Sroufe, and the Cornell junior served the next six points to put the visitors up, 20-19. During the run, Cornell received a service ace from Sroufe, a kill from McCarty, and a block from McCarty and Wilson. Bucknell tied the game once more at 20-20, but a kill from Wemhoff opened the decisive 5-1 run to end the set.
 
Cornell carried the momentum into the second set, hitting .450 as a team and holding Bucknell to a mere .075 hitting percentage. Despite how impressive the Big Red offense was, the Bison managed to keep the set close until back-to-back kills from Wemhoff gave Cornell a four-point cushion (21-17) that it would not relinquish.
 
After the break, the Big Red came out firing in the third set and grabbed a 6-2 lead behind the strong serving of Sganderlla, who chipped in a pair of aces to the cause. Cornell eventually pushed its lead to 11-4 on the strength of Goodall's serve and then to double-digits (16-6) on a kill by Sganderlla. From there, the Big Red rolled to the 25-15 victory.