HENRIETTA, NY – The University of Rochester volleyball team picked up a 3-0 sweep of SUNY Cortland to open play at the New York Regional Challenge at RIT on Friday evening.
 
Rochester took the match with set scores of 25-19, 25-22 and 25-17 to improve to 21-9 on the season.  The loss drops Cortland to 11-19 on the year.
 
In the opening set, the Yellowjackets used a four-point run to break out a five point advantage, leading 13-8.  Allie DeRubertis smacked a kill and UR used two Cortland errors to jump ahead.  Cortland pulled back within two at 17-15, but Rochester won the next three points thanks to an Alara Kocak kill and two Red Dragon errors to regain the five point lead, eventually closing out the first set 25-19.
 
Cortland was able to grab a four point lead in the second set, edging ahead 10-6 using a 4-1 spurt which featured a Nadia Moore kill and service ace along with two Rochester errors.  The Yellowjackets then battled back to tie the score at 16-all following back-to-back kills from DeRubertis and Beth Ghyzel.
 
Ghyzel then broke a 19-19 deadlock with three straight service aces, giving the Yellowjackets a late game run, leading to the 25-22 win.
 
The third set saw Rochester jump out to an early lead, ahead 6-1 after seven points, with Clara Martinez providing two kills in the stretch.  Kocak then provided three straight points, with one kill and two aces, building Rochester's lead to eight at 15-7.
 
Cortland chipped away though, getting back within three points, trailing 16-13 following a 6-2 rush which featured two kills from Nicole Van Pelt and another from Bridgette Moran, forcing UR to take a timeout.
 
The timeout settled UR and Rochester scored the next four points and eight of the next nine to earn match point, leading 24-14.  Cortland got three straight points before the Yellowjackets were able to close out the set 25-17.
 
UR was led by Martinez who provided 12 kills and hit .647 for the match.  Kocak added nine kills and DeRubertis finished with eight while Tamera Shaw had four.  Ghyzel also had 34 assists, 6 digs and 3 aces, while DeRubertis added four aces on the night.  Sara Apanavicius led Rochester with 10 digs while Kocak chipped in eight along with three aces. 
 
For Cortland, Van Pelt led with seven kills while Moore and Camryn Anderson each added six.  Gabby Amelio added 20 assists, eight digs and three aces, while Kiersten Cote had a team-high nine digs.
 
Rochester returns to action at the NY Regional Challenge on Saturday, playing matches at Nazareth College against Penn College and Montclair State University at 11 am and 1 pm respectively.