ATLANTA – Rochester will play Case Western Reserve University for fifth place in the University Athletic Association championships on Saturday morning after both teams won late Friday.
 
UR defeated NYU, 26-24, 23-25, 25-16, 25-17, in one consolation match. CWRU defeated Brandeis, 3-0, in the other consolation match.
 
In the championship portion of the bracket, host Emory University will play Washington University in St. Louis for the title. Third place will be a duel between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Chicago.
 
Seedings held up pretty well through the tournament's first day, although Carnegie Mellon, which entered as the top seed, has to contest third place honors with fourth-seeded Emory knocking off CMU, 3-2, in one semi. Second-seeded Washington was a 3-0 winner over third-seeded Chicago.
 
The consolation bracket played to form. CWRU was the fifth seed, Rochester the sixth, NYU the seventh, and Brandeis the eighth. Brandeis nearly pulled off the upset of the tournament, taking CMU to five sets before the top-seeded Tartans prevailed, 3-2.
 
Set #1 between Rochester and NYU set the tone. There were five lead changes and 10 ties in a match that ended 26-24 UR. Over the last three sets, there were 17 ties and six lead changes. NYU pulled out a tough set two. Rochester won the third set by nine and the fourth set by eight to book its place in the fifth place match. The Yellowjackets carry a 19-12 record into their second meeting of the year vs. CWRU.
 
Five players had seven or more kills for Rochester. Clara Martinez had 11 kills (tied for match-high honors with two from NYU), Beth Ghyzel had 10 kills, as did Kate Korslund. Alara Kocak supplied eight kills and Kayla Sell had seven.
 
Ghyzel's line included 20 assists, nine digs, four aces, one block solo, and 20 assists. Renae Lapins had 20 assists to accompany seven digs. Courtney Vidovich led Rochester in digs with 20. Lydia Barnard had 15.
 
Kocak had four digs. Rochester finished with seven aces – Sara Apanavicius had two and Barnard had one. The Yellowjackets had eight total team blocks. Ghyzel had a solo, Tamera Shaw had four block assists and three digs. Sell, Korslund, and Martinez had three block assists.