Visiting SUNY Geneseo held off the University of Rochester volleyball team in a non-conference matchup on Tuesday evening, emerging with a 3-1 victory at the Louis Alexander Palestra.
 
After a strong start by Geneseo in the first set, with the Knights winning 25-18, the remaining three sets were all within a few points. Geneseo won the second and fourth by identical 25-22 scores, with Rochester won the third set 25-21.
 
The loss moves UR to 5-8 on the season, while Geneseo sees its record improve to 6-7 on the season.
 
Three Yellowjackets had double-digit kills. Sonia McGaffigan had 13 while Kellie McCrea and Ella Sokolowski each had 10. McGaffigan also excelled at the net, with six blocks, while Sokolowski had three.
 
Megan Gatz added eight kills and 14 digs, while La'i Yuen paced Rochester defensively with 18 digs. Ana Cerezer added 17 digs while Isabelle Miranda and Zaira Reyes were the setters, with 26 and 11 assists, respectively.
 
Geneseo's Lina Rossa led all players with 14 kills on the night, adding 15 digs. The Knights Isabella Imbo also had 11 kills and nine digs.
 
Several Geneseo players had multiple blocks, led by Jackie Borland who have five and Julia Walalce and Madison Gamberg who had four each. Morgan Michalski had 37 assists and 16 digs, while Emily Haber recorded a match-high 23 digs.
 
Leading 5-4 in the opening set, Geneseo used a 6-point burst to grab an 11-4 edge, aided by multiple attack errors from the Yellowjackets. UR did score the next three points to get within four, but Geneseo held the home team at bay the rest of the set, leading to the 25-18 win.
 
In the second, the teams were back and forth for the first dozen points, with UR leading 7-5 after back-to-back kills from Cerezer and McCrea. A four point spurt put the visitors ahead 18-12 midway through the set, but Rochester pulled even after scoring seven of the next eight points. Kills by Gatz and McCrea were sandwiched around two Megan Hauer aces in the run.
 
Geneseo settled in though, regaining the lead at 20-19 and never relinquishing it the remainder of the set, earning the set 25-22, going up 2-0 in the match.
 
Rochester was quick out of the gate in the third, leading 6-1 after the first seven points. Gatz had back-to-back kills and Yuen had a service ace, helping UR to the big lead. The teams followed by trading runs, moving the score to 11-5 in favor of UR. The Knights got as close as three multiple times later in the set, but Rochester's McGaffigan ended the set in style with a kill.
 
UR looked good early in the fourth as well, jumping out to a 10-3 start. Aided by two kills each from Sokolowski and McGaffigan along with one from Diana Karosas, the Yellowjackets had a tiebreaking fifth set on their mind.
 
Geneseo responded though, scoring the next five points to get the score to 10-8 UR, and surged ahead with an eight-point run later on. The Knights posted a block by Gamberg and Imbo and followed with a kill from Wallace to lead 19-13.
 
Rochester pulled within 23-22 late after another Hauer ace, but Geneseo steadied the ship in the final points, using a UR error and kill from Imbo to seal the four set win.
 
The Yellowjackets next matches take place on Sunday in UAA Round Robin #2, coming against Case Western Reserve University and Carnegie Mellon University. The matches will be played at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.