ITHACA, N.Y. – The Yale volleyball team entered a raucous Newman Arena sitting in a first-place tie with Princeton, but the Big Red played the spoiler and moved itself up the standings with a sweep of the Bulldogs. The win snapped a 19-match losing streak to Yale, handing Cornell is first victory in the series since Nov. 3, 2007. More importantly, Cornell's win, coupled with Harvard and Penn's loss, moves all three teams into a tie for third place in the Ivy League standings behind Princeton (10-3) and Yale (9-4).
 
Game scores were 27-25, 25-22, 25-19.
 
"I think we're very similar teams in style," said Trudy Vande Berg, The Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach Of Volleyball. "We like to play physically and serve aggressively and you could see in that first set that neither team was able to stay in system. It took a little bit to find our rhythm but I thought we did early in the second set and that set the tone."
 
Cornell (11-10, 7-6) was led by Kit McCarty 14 kills and .379 hitting percentage (14-3-29), but Kara Rogers wasn't far behind with 13 kills and a .360 hitting percentage (13-4-25). Rogers also added three block assists, along with middle Jenna Phelps, who combined with her counterpart Jada Stackhouse for five kills with zero errors.
 
Kiley McPeek finished with 23 digs to establish a new high in the Ivy League this season, and the eighth best mark in Cornell history, for digs in a three-set match, eclipsing her own former conference-high of 21 digs vs. St. John's on Sept. 9.
 
Three other Big Red – Chelsea Sincox (12), Zoe Chamness (11) and Samanta Arenas (10) – finished with double-digit digs as Sincox and Chamness handed out 20 and 18 assists, respectively.  
 
"The 'Ks' were great tonight," said Vande Berg. "Kit, Kara, Kiley. All three played great. They were really the key to getting the win."     
 
Yale (15-7, 9-4 Ivy) was led by Kathryn Attar and Kelley Wirth with nine kills apiece and libero Kate Swanson posted 20 digs.  
 
The first set was a barnburner with 12 ties and three lead changes before eventually being decided in extra points, 27-25. In the final two sets Cornell lead wire-to-wire to earn its first sweep of Yale since the 2003 season.
 
The Big Red returns to action when it hosts Brown tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 11 at 5 p.m. Cornell will honor the program's five seniors – Kit McCarty, Kiley McPeek, Chelsea Sincox, Maddy Sroufe and Emily Wemhoff – during its Senior Night ceremony immediately following its the contest with the Bears.