PALESTRA – Now, this is the way Senior Night is supposed to go: a nice ceremony celebrating the achievements of the soon-to-be graduating class, lots of family and friends in the stands to cheer, and a thrilling game once play begins.

That was the scene on Wednesday evening when the Yellowjackets faced Nazareth College in a matchup of 18-win teams. The Golden Flyers came into the match at 18-7, winners of nine of their last 11. Rochester arrived at 18-9. The Yellowjackets lost their last three, all in the UAA Round Robin #2. Two of those losses came against nationally-ranked squads: Washington was ranked #16 and Carnegie Mellon sat at 19. The other loss came against Chicago, which wound up posting the round robin's best overall record and will be the number one seed for the UAA Championships in St. Louis in early November.
 
There were thrills aplenty as Rochester rallied for a 3-2 victory after trailing, 2-0. The individual scores were 21-25, 21-25, 25-14, 26-24, 15-13. Three players led Rochester with 11 kills: Alexandra Goldman, Clara Martinez, and Beth Ghyzel. Alaraz Kocak and Alexandra Nelligan had nine kills apiece.
 
Cady Messmer had 14 kills for Nazareth and Carmen Sapp had 12. Melissa Newcomb added eight. Maureen Thayer had 40 assists and 10 digs for Nazareth. Messmer had three aces and nine digs. Margorie Didas led with 27 digs. Delaney Martin contributed 10 digs.
 
For the Yellowjackets, Aimee Kohler had 49 assists, four kills two aces, and 14 digs. Shira Katz added six kills. Nina Baek had 11 digs and Courtney Vidovich had 10. Meghan Connor led UR with 19 digs. She also had two aces. Sara Apanavicius supplied 13 digs.
 
Martinez had two block solos and three block assists. Goldman had one solo and three assists. Katz, Nelligan, and Ghyzel all had two block assists.
 
Nazareth won the first two sets by identical 25-21 scores. The Golden Flyers built up a seven point lead twice in the opening set before the Yellowjackets chipped away, slicing it to 24-21. In set two, Rochester was ragged early (UR hit -.143 for the match) and fell behind by as much as 10 points, 20-10. A 9-1 run brought the Yellowjackets within 22-19, and it stayed at three, 24-21, after Connor's ace. Messmer was successful on a kill to close the game at 25-21 and give the guests a 2-0 lead.
 
Rochester turned up its game dramatically in set three. The Yellowjackets hit .462 (14 kills, two errors, 26 attacks) and Nazareth hit in negative numbers (-.125, 6 kills, 10 errors, 32 attacks). The set was tied six times in the first 16 points (8-8) before Rochester went on a 10-1 run. It peaked at 22-11.
 
Set four was tight throughout. There were six ties. Kills by Kohler and Ghyzel pushed UR in front, 18-13. Nazareth battled back to tie at 24-24, after a successful kill, then an attack error by Rochester.  The Yellowjackets edged ahead, 25-24, on Ghyzel's kill and then won the game on a kill from Kocak.
 
Momentum swung back and fourth in the final set. There were five ties and three lead changes. (For the match itself, there were 22 ties and nine lead changes). With the score tied at 11-11, Kohler set up kills by Nelligan and Martinez. Naz got within 13-12 on Sapp's kill, but a service error put UR up, 14-12. Sapp and Newcomb blocked a UR attack  to make it a one-point set again (14-13). Kocak closed out the win with a kill set up by Connor.
 
NOTES: Seniors Kohler, Baek, Goldman, and Connor were honored before the match…  This was the 70^th time the teams have met in volleyball… It was UR's first win against Naz since 2012… They will play again this season. On Saturday, October 29, UR will play Nazareth in the NY Regional Challenge in New York City (hosted by NYU at Hunter College).