University of Rochester women's volleyball swept the Alfred University Saxons, 3-0, in a midweek, non-conference matchup on Wednesday evening inside the Louis Alexander Palestra. With the win UR, moves to 8-10 on the season, while the Saxons drop to 10-4 on the year.
 
The two sides traded kills in the early goings of the opening set with four kills in the span of five points from Rylee Bergeron, Ashley Cook and Myla Nover-Estes giving the Yellowjackets a 6-5 lead. A service error knotted the set at six-all before Rochester reeled off a 7-0 run, taking advantage of three Alfred attack errors as well as a pair of aces from Bergeron to take a 13-6 lead.
 
Midway through the run, Alfred took a timeout, and while two Saxon points slowed UR's roll, Ruby Moore sent over two aces with UR up 14-8 to make it a 16-8 Yellowjacket lead.
 
Alfred then answered with a run of their own, scoring four-straight points to cut Rochester's lead in half, 16-12, on three-straight errors, but an attack error gave UR the serve and kept the visitors from getting any closer.
 
The 'Jackets would hold serve with their four-point lead, extending it to six, 20-14, on Lydia Weeks' ace, and later took advantage of back-to-back attack errors by Abigail Omelan to make it a 23-16 advantage.
 
Two points later, Bergeron brought up set point with another kill, this one from Alexia Nelms, and while the Saxons held off set point four times, closing the gap to just three with a 4-0 run, Cook finished off the set with a kill, 25-21, to give UR a 1-0 match lead.
 
With four-in-a-row early in set two, the 'Jackets again jumped ahead early, taking a 6-2 lead on Bergeron's kill, which was followed by three straight Alfred errors. UR then led 7-3 after Ruby Moore's kill, and extended their lead all the way out to 10-5 on Nelms' kill and two more Saxon attack errors, before the visitors found their stride and went on a huge run.
 
Trailing 10-5, Alfred scored the next four points to pull within one and force Rochester to take a timeout and then kept rolling with five more out of the timeout to turn a five-point deficit into a four-point, 14-10 lead on Delaney Sims' ace.
 
An attack error though, slowed the Saxons' run, and after a hitting error by UR, the 'Jackets answered with a long run of their own. Kills by Nover-Estes and Caroline Hoag, as well as Cook's service ace, pulled the Yellowjackets within one before Hoag's block leveled the set at 15-all.
 
Taylor Malone briefly gave the Saxons a 16-15 lead, but Rochester scored five of the next six points, highlighted by a pair of Nover-Estes' kills, to take a 20-17 heading into an Alfred timeout. UR then scored two of the next three points out of the timeout, going up 22-18 on kills from Bergeron and Moore.
 
Cook added two more kills to make it a 23-19 and then 24-20 lead before Nelms closed out the set with a service ace to give Rochester a 2-0 match lead.
 
Down 2-0, Alfred struck first in the third set, scoring the first four points on Malone's kill, two aces and an attack error, before UR got on the board on a service error. Bergeron and Hoag's block then made it 4-2, and the 'Jackets made their way back, tying the score at six-all and again at 7-7.
 
Alfred countered with four of the next five points, three from kills from Catherina Krause, Malone and Omelan, but again Rochester responded tying the set at 12-all with four of the next five points.
 
Kills from Bergeron and Nover-Estes pulled Rochester even with Alfred, and after a service error briefly pulled the visitors ahead, Bergeron won the serve back with a kill and UR rallied for four straight on Weeks' serve.
 
Nover-Estes and Maren Smith knocked down kills before Weeks notched another ace, as the Yellowjackets extended their lead to 18-14, and then 21-16 after back-to-back aces off Raquel Morales' serve.
 
The Yellowjackets would score seven of the last eight points of the match, finishing off set three on a 12-4 run, turning a 13-13 tie into a 25-17 set-three win and 3-0 match victory.
 
Bergeron led the 'Jackets with 10 kills offensively, while Nelms had a game-high 27 assists. As a team, Rochester tallied 13 service aces, led by three from Weeks, who also led UR with 15 digs.
 
Up next, Rochester resumes University Athletic Association (UAA) conference play at UAA Round Robin #2, hosted by WashU in St. Louis, MO, against Carnegie Mellon and Chicago on Sunday, Oct. 13, beginning at 10:00 a.m. CST.