In a local battle on the volleyball court on Tuesday evening, visiting RIT emerged with a 3-1 win over the University of Rochester at the Louis Alexander Palestra.
 
Rochester falls to 14-2 on the season while the Tigers move to 11-2, winning their ninth consecutive match.
 
RIT started fast, winning the opening set 25-18.  In the blink of an eye, the Tigers were up 7-2, in part to two kills from Katie Hobler and two aces.  The lead ballooned to 12-4, forcing UR to a timeout.  The Yellowjackets eventually got within six multiple times, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the way.
 
In set two, it was the Yellowjackets who jumped out to the early lead, going ahead 5-1 thanks to two Tiger errors and kills from Megan McHugh and Allie DeRubertis.  RIT ran off four straight points to tie it, before the 'Jackets responded with four of their own to edge ahead 9-5.  Two more RIT errors and an Alara Kocak kill put the Yellowjackets up 18-10 and Rochester cruised from there to win the set 25-15.
 
The third was a tight set throughout, going to RIT 25-22.  RIT had the early lead, but a run of seven of eight points went Rochester's way midway through the set, allowing UR to go up 18-16, forcing a Tiger timeout.  The Tigers pulled even at 20-20 and then ran off four straight points down 21-20 to earn set point.  A Kate Korslund kill kept UR in the set, but RIT earned the set win when Taylor Higgins smashed a kill for the 25th point.
 
RIT used another quick start in the fourth and final set.  At 2-2, the Tigers would then score nine of the next ten points to surge out in front 11-3.  Two kills each by Hobler and Kelly Waters along with a pair of aces fueled the run.  Rochester tried to chip away, getting as close as 22-19 following a Tiger service error and attack error, but RIT fended them off, winning the set 25-20.
 
Leading Rochester on the night was Kocak who had 13 kills and 10 digs, hitting .370 in the loss.  Korslund had 10 kills and three blocks while DeRubertis had nine kills.  Beth Ghyzel had 5 kills, 30 assists, 10 digs and 5 blocks.  McHugh finished with five blocks as well with Tamera Shaw adding four.  UR finished the night with 10 blocks as a team.
 
RIT was paced by Hobler who had a match-high 21 kills, chipping in seven digs and two aces.  Waters and Shelby Doheny ended with seven kills and four blocks each while Erin Parkinson had 42 assists, 3 aces and 8 digs.
 
The Yellowjackets now shift focus to UAA Round Robin #1 this weekend at Brandeis University.  UR plays Emory and Carnegie Mellon on Saturday before taking on NYU in a Sunday matchup.