PROVIDENCE, R.I. – For the second consecutive season, the Big Red volleyball team placed third in the Ivy League standings after a 3-1 victory over Brown this evening in the season finale for both teams at the Pizzitola Center. Cornell dropped the first set, 18-25, but came back to win the final three – 25-14, 25-23, 25-20 – to improve to 14-10 overall and 9-5 in the Ivy League.
The back-to-back third place finishes are the best consecutive seasons by Cornell since the program won three straight titles following a second place finish from 2003 to 2006, and the nine conference victories are the most for the Big Red since the 2008 campaign.
Cornell posted a season high .356 hitting percentage, as five Big Red hit better than .350 on the evening. Freshman
Avery Hanan matched a career-high with 15 kills with just one error on 40 attempts (.350) to go along with seven digs and three total blocks (one solo).
Jenna Phelps (13) and
Jillienne Bennett (10) both finished in double digits, with Phelps hitting a match-high .455 (13-3-22). Middle blocker
Jada Stackhouse was huge at the net with six kills and no errors on 17 attempts (.353) to go along with a match-high seven block assists.
Defensively,
Lily Barber registered a team-high 22 digs with
Zoe Chamness and
Shae Bauchens chipping in 13 and 12, respectively. Chamness also handed out 50 assists on 58 Cornell kills.
Brown (11-13, 4-10) was led by Makena Ehlert's 22 kills.
Cornell scored the first five points of the first set, and eventually took a 7-1 lead, but the Bears stormed back behind the strong serving of Paris Winkler, and a combined block from Grover and Tylin Stiller made it a 7-6 game. The teams traded points to 14-14 but three unanswered points handed the home team a lead it would not relinquish.
The teams continued to exchange blows through the early part of the second set before a 7-0 run put the Big Red up, 18-9. The run featured a pair of kills Phelps and Hanan, as well as one kill each from
Carla Sganderlla and Chamness. The Big Red never took its foot off the gas, scoring six of the final eight points of the set with two kills from Bennett, one kill from Stackhouse and Hanan, and a service ace from Chamness.
The third set was far more competitive but a pair of kills from Stackhouse, coupled with a pair of Brown errors, gave Cornell some much-needed breathing room at 19-13. Brown battled back with a late 6-1 run to pull within one (24-23), but a kill from Hanan gave the Big Red the 25-23 victory.
The Big Red used another mid-match run to pull away in the fourth set as six unanswered points, including three kills from Phelps and two from Hanan, turned a 10-9 deficit into a 15-9 advantage for the visitors. The Bears got within three points (20-17), but a service error, followed by a kill from Sganderlla, ended the threat and Cornell rolled to the 25-20 victory.
