ITHACA, N.Y. – After four incredibly close sets that saw the Cornell volleyball team tied with Brown, 2-2, the Big Red completely dominated the fifth set to earn the hard-fought 3-2 victory in its season finale this evening in Newman Arena. With the win, Cornell finishes the season with a 12-11 record overall and a mark of 8-6 in the Ivy League, tied with Harvard for third place overall in the conference standings.
The first four sets featured 33 ties and 14 lead changes as the Big Red won the first two sets, 26-24, 25-22, before dropping the next two 23-25 and 25-27. The fifth set was not nearly as dramatic as Cornell jumped out to a 13-1 lead and then rolled to the 15-5 victory.
Cornell received solid performances up-and-down the lineup and all five of the team's seniors contributed to the Senior Night victory.
Kit McCarty led the team with 15 kills and a .238 hitting percentage, while libero
Kiley McPeek registered a game-high 32 digs and used some dominating serving to stake the Big Red a 13-1 lead in the decisive final set.
Senior outside hitters
Emily Wemhoff and
Maddy Sroufe combined for 10 kills and eight digs and senior setter
Chelsea Sincox posted a 13-assist, 11-dig double-double.
Not to be outdone by the seniors, a trio of sophomores also had outstanding performances, as
Samanta Arenas finished with 15 kills and 14 digs, defensive specialist
Lily Barber tallied 18 digs, and middle blocker
Jenna Phelps finished one off the school record with an incredible 14 block assists, a mark that does set the standard for a five-set match.
Freshman setter
Zoe Chamness also posted a 35-assist, 10-dig double-double.
Brown (7-18, 2-12 Ivy) was led by Sabrina Stillwell's 13 kills. Shirin Tooloee was the only other Bear to finish with double-digit kills (12), but she finished with 13 hitting errors. Libero Melissa Cairo tallied 28 digs.
NOTES TO KNOW
* The eight Ivy League wins are the most for Cornell since the 2006 season.
* The third place finish in the conference is also the Big Red's best finish since the 2006 season.
* With back-to-back wins over Yale and Brown, Cornell earned its third Ivy weekend sweep of the season, the most since the Big Red finished with four Ivy sweeps in 2006.
*
Emily Wemhoff finishes her career ranked ninth in kills (817); 13th in points (891.0); 18th in kills per set (2.59).
*
Kit McCarty finishes her career ranked 11th in kills (789); 14th in points (882.5); 19th in block assists (167).
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Kiley McPeek finishes her career ranked 10th in digs (993); 10th in digs per set (3.06).
*
Chelsea Sincox finishes her career ranked 16th in assists (535); 15th in digs per set (2.69); 18th in digs (788).
*
Maddy Sroufe finishes her career ranked 20th in kills per set (2.49)
*
Zoe Chamness finishes the season ranked 18th in career assists (402).
*
Lauren Donnelly finishes the season ranked 19th in career assists (277).
*
Jenna Phelps finished the season ranked seventh in service aces per set in a single-season (0.47); 12th in attack percentage (.307); 15th blocks per set (1.18); 19th in blocks assists (81); 19th in service aces (37); 25th in total blocks (92).
*
Jada Stackhouse finished the season ranked 29th in attack percentage for a single-season (.272); 29th in block assists (69).
*
Kiley McPeek finished the season ranked eighth in Cornell history for in digs in a single-season (447) and fifth in digs per set (5.08)
