PITTSFORD, NY – The University of Rochester volleyball team ended the regular season strong, posting two more straight set wins at the New York Regional Challenge on Saturday afternoon at Nazareth's Kidera Gymnasium.
 
UR (23-9) ended up sweeping Penn College 3-0 (25-13, 25-10, 25-8) and then posted another 3-0 win to close the tournament, defeating Montclair State 25-11, 25-22 and 25-17.  Rochester ended up 3-0 in the two-day event and did not drop a set after opening play Friday night with a 3-0 defeat of SUNY Cortland.  Rochester's Alara Kocak and Beth Ghyzel were selected to the All-Tournament team and UR ended as one of three teams to finish the challenge unbeaten, along with RIT and Fredonia.
 
In the Penn College match, UR got off to a quick 4-0 lead in the opening set and never looked back.  Kills from Allie DeRubertis and Hope Havenhill along with a Ghyzel service ace got the Yellowjackets up early.
 
Leading 9-6, UR rattled off six straight points to lead 15-6, paced by two kills from Clara Martinez, another from DeRubertis and Ghyzel along with a Kate Korslund ace.
 
The second set was all Rochester, as UR ran off big chunks of points, jumping out to 5-1, 12-3 and 19-5 leads, eventually winning the set 25-10.
 
In the third, the Wildcats (1-22) started hot, earning a 4-1 lead, but that quickly evaporated as the Yellowjackets won six points in a row to jump ahead 7-4.  After Penn stopped the streak, UR then went on another run, scoring the next nine points to pull ahead 16-5.  Kiara Carrasquilla had an ace and two kills in UR's 9-point burst.  Rochester won the third 25-8.
 

UR was balanced in the opening win, with Havenhill leading the way with 6 kills and 6 aces and 7 digs.  Megan McHugh and Martinez each had five kills, while Elizabeth Thomas, Ghyzel, DeRubertis and Carrasquilla finished with three apiece.  Ghyzel also had 28 assists.  Courtney Vidovich paced UR with 8 digs.
 
Against Montclair State (18-9), Rochester busted open a close opening set with a huge 11-point spurt on Martinez's serve.  The run saw the score go from 4-3 UR, to a 16-3 Yellowjacket lead.  Martinez had three aces in the surge, while Kocak added two kills.  MSU couldn't respond to the big lead and fell in the opening set 25-11.
 
The second set was closer, with Rochester edging ahead 13-8 after three straight points, including kills from Martinez and DeRubertis.  The Redhawks battled back to tie the set and even take a 19-17 lead, but a Yellowjacket flurry late pulled UR ahead 23-19.  Three MSU attack errors and a service error led to the Yellowjacket run.
 
After the Redhawks scored the next three points to trim the lead to one at 23-22, kills from DeRubertis and Kocak ended the set in favor of Rochester 25-22.
 
Rochester kept the pressure up in the third set, using an 8-2 rush to go ahead 14-7, transitioning that into the eventual 25-17 win.
 
Kocak and DeRubertis each had eight kills in the match for UR while Martinez and Tamera Shaw each added six.  Ghyzel had 5 kills, hit .500 and 5 digs to go along with 24 assists.  Vidovich chipped in nine digs while DeRubertis had eight.  Shaw finished with three blocks.
 
Rochester now turns its focus to hosting the UAA Championships which take place next weekend at UR's Palestra and Goergen Athletic Center.  The Yellowjackets, the tournament's #7 seed, will play #2 Chicago in Friday afternoon's quarterfinal.