CORTLAND, NY – University of Rochester women's volleyball bounced back from a season-opening defeat on Friday night to sweep their final two matches of the Red Dragon Classic, hosted by SUNY Cortland, at Whitney T. Corey Gym. The 'Jackets swept the Fredonia Blue Devils (0-2) in their morning contests, before moving to 2-1 on the year with another sweep, this time against Hartwick.
 
MATCH ONE: Rochester 3, Fredonia 0
Fredonia would open up an early lead on the 'Jackets, scoring five straight after a bad set gave UR a 5-3 lead to take an early 8-5 lead of their own. But Rochester called a timeout and quickly regrouped, scoring the next two points on kills by Ruby Moore and Ashley Cook.
 
The Blue Devils would pull back ahead by a pair, taking advantage of a UR service error, but the 'Jackets then rattled off seven straight, with Cook connecting on two aces to force Fredonia to take a timeout, down 14-9.
 
The 'Jackets would score three more out of the timeout to take a seven-point, 17-10 lead on a block by Sonia McGaffigan and Areti Tsirikaki, and would force another Fredonia timeout following back-to-back McGaffigan kills to go up 19-13.
 
The Blue Devils would come as close as five, 23-18, in the later stages of the opening set, before Caroline Hoag scored a kill and Cook earned another ace to finish off a 25-18, opening-set victory.
 
The Yellowjackets and Blue Devils would trade early leads in set two, until three-in-a-row from UR, another Cook kill and two aces from Katie Westerheim, made it a 19-15 'Jacket lead and forced the Blue Devils to take a timeout.
 
Cook added another kill out of the timeout though, and taking advantage of a pair of Blue Devil errors, UR increased its lead to as many as seven before McGaffigan finished off the 25-19, second-set win.
 
UR then looked to run away with the third set early and finish off the sweep, forcing a Fredonia timeout with five straight to turn a 5-3 advantage into a 9-3 lead. However, the Blue Devils would find a run of their own, and knot the score up at 12-all following a Rochester timeout.
 
The 'Jackets would keep their lead though, scoring the next two points on kills from Moore and Myla Nover-Estes, before three straight put UR up 20-15 and forced Fredonia to use another timeout.
 
Rochester then would finish off the sweep with four straight kills, with two from Cook and two from Moore closing out the three-set, UR victory.
 
Offensively, McGaffigan led the 'Jackets with 12 kills, while Moore added nine and Cook scored eight. Alexia Nelms tallied a game-high 24 assists, while Nover-Estes led the Yellowjackets with four aces.
 
Defensively, McKenzie McDonald and Westerheim each tallied six digs, as 11 different Yellowjackets combined for 36 digs.
 
MATCH ONE: Rochester 3, Hartwick 0
After trading runs in the early goings of the first set, the Yellowjackets, out of a timeout, went on a 9-2 run to take an 18-12 lead.
 
Five 'Jackets combined for seven kills over the run, turning a 10-9 deficit into a six-point lead. However, the Hawks came right back with a run of their own, leveling the score at 19-all after a UR attack error.
 
Again though, the Yellowjackets regrouped out of a timeout and scored the next five to go up 24-19 on Moore's kill, and after a service error gave Hartwick the serve, Moore smashed another to finish off a 25-20 set-one win.
 
The 'Jackets would then run away with set two, jumping out to an early 6-2 lead on kills from McGaffigan and Nelms, before a 6-0 run, kick-started by Julia Chotiner and Moore's block, brought Rochester's lead out to 14-5.
 
Rochester would lead by as many as 11 in the second set, finishing things off with a pair of kills from Cook and Nover-Estes to take a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-14 set-two win.
 
Again in set three, the Yellowjackets led early, but Hartwick would keep things close, trading points with UR until the score stood at 11-8. UR would score the next five, taking advantage of four Hawks' errors, before Nover-Estes added one more to make it a 17-9 Rochester lead.
 
And while the Hawks would slowly make their way back, three times holding off set point down 24-16, Moore found deal Hatwick the final blow, giving Rochester a 25-19 win in the third set, and another sweep to finish the day with two wins.
 
Moore led Rochester with 11 kills and a team-high five aces, while McGaffigan joined the sophomore in double figures with 10 kills. Cook and Nover-Estes each added eight, while Nelms tallied 21 assists and Westerheim scored 13.
 
Defensively, Lydia Weeks had eight digs, while La'I Yuen and McKenzie McDonald each tallied six.
 
The Yellowjackets next return home to host the two-day, UR Invitational inside the Louis Alexander Palestra, beginning on Friday, Sept. 8 with matches against Keuka College at 5:00 p.m. and Buffalo State at 7:00 p.m.