NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Despite 10 kills and an impressive .526 hitting percentage from senior middle blocker Casey Justus, the Cornell volleyball team fell in straight sets to Yale, 3-0 (22-25, 19-25, 22-25), on Saturday evening at the John J. Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn.
The Big Red was right in all three sets against the Bulldogs, winning the battle in two major statistical categories. With Justus's lead, Cornell out-hit Yale on the match, .273 to .266. Avery Hanan and Jillienne Bennett were also efficient on the attack, with Hanan registering a season-high nine kills on a .320 hitting percentage and Bennett putting down seven kills with a .353 hitting percentage.
Justus also led the Big Red blocking brigade, collecting four of Cornell's 13 blocks while helping the Big Red hold Yale block-less in the match. Freshman Camryn Carlo, who made her way into the starting line-up this evening, posted three blocks, including the only solo block of the night for either team. Hanan and Madison Baptiste recorded two blocks a piece.
The Big Red struggled in the serve and receive game on Saturday evening, however, proving costly in the end result of the match. Cornell committed 10 serving errors, while the Bulldogs committed only six and made up for it with nine aces. This equated to nine reception errors for the Big Red, while Yale held itself to only four.
The first set was competitive from the start, and when Yale created a bit of separation with the score at 10-7, the Big Red answered with three-straight points on a Hanan kill, Carlo and Bennett block, and Yale attack error to even things up, 10-10. Yale scored the next two points to reclaim a 12-10 advantage, but Cornell fired back once again, scoring back-to-back points to tie the score up, 12-12. Emma Worthington, who finished the contest with a team-high 17 assists, put down a kill in the run.
Yale's Audrey Leak had other ideas, scoring three straight kills from Carly Diehl to give the Bulldogs a 15-12 lead. After a Yale service ace out of a Cornell timeout, the Big Red quickly made up ground, going on a 4-0 run to even the score at 16-16. Bennett and Justus notched kills over this period, and it was just one of many for Justus in the set. Justus notched five kills, half of her 10 for the match, in the first set, while hitting .714. She cleaned up just about any Yale mistake at the net, handling the Bulldog overpasses with ease.
The set remained neck-and-neck, however, and Yale took a two-point lead, 21-19, that set itself up for success in the first. The Bulldogs scored three of the next four points out of a Cornell timeout to force set point, 24-20. While the Big Red fought off two set points on Carlo and Bennett kills, Yale would take the first set, 25-22.
Yale's attackers heated up in the second set, and with the score at 9-8 in favor of the Bulldogs, Yale clinched four kills in the next five points to extend its lead to 13-9. The Bulldogs would push its lead to five, 15-10, but Cornell buckled down, putting together a 6-1 run to tie things up, 16-16, and force a Yale timeout. The string of points was a total team effort for the Big Red, as Worthington, Justus, Bennett, Joanna Chang, and Hanan all secured a kill.
But Yale squashed Cornell's momentum, scoring the next six points to claim a 22-16 lead. The cushion was all the Bulldogs needed to go on and win the second, 25-19. The Bulldogs hit .439 in the set.
The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 5-2 lead in the third, but three-consecutive Cornell points, including a Worthington service ace and a Carlo block, evened the score, 5-5. From here, the play was back-and-forth until three-straight points gave Cornell a 12-10 lead courtesy of kills from Justus and Hanan and a service ace from Rylee Baptiste.
Yale quickly got back on track, scoring back-to-back points to tie the game, 12-12. The middle portion of the set was close as could be, with both teams exchanging points until the Bulldogs put together a string of three straight to take a 20-17 lead. The Big Red responded, scoring three of the next four points to cut Yale's lead to one, 21-20. Bennett and Justus recorded kills in the run, and Hanan and Justus teamed up for a block.
With Cornell trailing, 22-20, Chang came through for Cornell, notching a kill and a service ace on back-to-back plays tie things up late, 22-22. Yale would score the last three points, however, winning the game, 25-22, and the match, 3-0.
With the loss, Cornell drops to 4-7 on the season and 0-3 in the Ivy League, while Yale improves to 9-3 overall and 2-1 in conference play. The Big Red will return home next weekend for a pair of Ivy League contests against Princeton on Friday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. and Penn on Saturday, Oct. 9 at 5 p.m. at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
