The University of Rochester volleyball team is off to its best start in school history, moving to 9-0 after a 3-1 victory over SUNY Geneseo on Wednesday evening at the Louis Alexander Palestra.
 
Rochester needed to rally to set the mark, dropping the opening set 23-25, before winning the next three 25-18, 25-20 and 25-22.  The 'Jackets previously best start to a season was 8-0, done twice, in the 1986 and 1990 seasons.  The loss drops Geneseo to 4-4 on the year.
 
Sophomore Allie DeRubertis smacked a career-high 22 kills and added 13 digs, while senior Clara Martinez added 15 kills, hit .444 and added two blocks.
 
DeRubertis' 22 kills were the most by a Yellowjacket since Shira Katz had 22 against Fredonia in the 2015 season.  The last time a UR player had 22 or more kills in a four-set affair was Kelly Mulrey who had 23 in four sets during the 2012 season against Nazareth.
 

Kate Korslund added seven kills, Tamera Shaw had five with two blocks and Beth Ghyzel handed out 54 assists, a career-high and tied for third most in school history.  Sara Apanavicius had 20 digs while Lauren Lopez had 10.
 
UR led early in the opening set, going up by as many as four points at 13-9, but the Knights scored 11 of the next 14 points to edge ahead 20-17.  They eventually held on and took the set 25-23 with Kiersten Colvin getting the final kill.
 
In the second, UR hit well, .414 as a team compared to the Knights who only hit .188 in set two, leading to the 25-18 win.
 
Geneseo got out to 8-4 lead in the third.  Rochester pulled even at 10-all, 15-all and 16-all before ending the set in a flurry, scoring nine of 13 points.
 
The Yellowjackets got four straight points, three on Knights attack errors to go ahead 20-16.  After a Grace Cergol kill, Shaw put on down for UR and that was followed by two more attack errors by Geneseo to make the score 23-17 before Rochester closed out the 25-20 win.
 
The fourth saw UR jump ahead 10-4, only to have the Knights score five straight to pull within one at 10-9.  The Yellowjackets stretched out to a 14-9 lead again, and held Geneseo at arm's length until they scored six out of seven points late to pull even at 22-all.  DeRubertis, Courtney Vidovich and Martinez kills on three straight points closed out the match though for Rochester.
 
Geneseo had three players with 10-plus kills, led by Cergol who had 18.  Abby May had 11 while Madeline McLaughlin chipped in 10.  Cergol also led in digs with 16 while Sam Mendelsohn had 13.  Morgan Michalski had 44 assists.
 
UR returns to the court this Friday and Saturday for the Buffalo State Bengal Challenge.  Rochester faces the host Bengals on Friday night before taking on Allegheny and Capital on Saturday.