University of Rochester women's volleyball bounced back from a trio of defeats this past weekend to open the Skidmore College Classic with a sweep of the Clarkson University Golden Knights on Friday evening at the Williamson Sports Center.
The 'Jackets recorded their eighth sweep of the year with the victory, moving to 10-4 on the season, while the Golden Knights fell to 8-5 on the season.
The Golden Knights would jump out to an early lead in the opening set, scoring the first four points of the match. But UR would answer with four of their own, evening the score at 4-4 on Myla Nover-Estes' service ace.
Clarkson though, would retake the lead and led for much of the opening set until an attack error by Marin Hangliter evened the score at 15-all. The Golden Knights scored the next point on Tess Sorel's kill, but Sonia McGaffigan responded with back-to-back kills, giving UR its first lead since leading 5-4.
Following a Golden Knights' timeout, Ashley Cook put down a kill to make it a three-point lead, and while Clarkson would twice pull within two over the final stretches, Ruby Moore's kill put UR up 24-21 and forced the Golden Knights to take another timeout.
And while a service error prevented the Yellowjackets from finishing the set out of the timeout, Cook followed up the error with a kill from Lydia Weeks to give UR a come-from-behind, 25-22 set-one win.
The Yellowjackets and Golden Knights would trade rallies to start set two, with Cook's kill evening the score at 4-4, before McGaffigan's kill made it 5-5. Rochester would score three of the next four on a Cook kill and Lilly Kraemer's ace, but the Golden Knights came right back to knot the score at 8-8 and then 9-9.
With the score tied at nine, McGaffigan slammed a kill to put UR up one and Nover-Estes then made it 11-9, before an attack error brought the lead up to three. And while the Golden Knights would keep things close the rest of the way, Caroline Hoag scored a kill up two following a Clarkson timeout to make it 23-20 UR.
Then after the Golden Knights again made it a two-point game, an attack error set up set point, and Moore landed an ace to give the 'Jackets a 25-21 win and a 2-0 match lead.
The 'Jackets would then roll to the sweep and a victory in set three, opening the third set with a 10-2 before taking a commanding 13-3 lead on McGaffgan's kill. Clarkson would twice pull within five, but both times kills by McGaffigan and Nover-Estes slowed the Golden Knights' charge, while three-straight points on McKenzie McDonald's serve put UR solidly ahead, 18-10.
Two more on Nover-Estes' serve made it 21-12, and the 'Jackets then finished off the set, 25-14, taking advantage of back-to-back attack errors to finish off the set and sweep.
Offensively, McGaffigan led UR with 12 kills and a .500 hitting percentage, while Cook and Nover-Estes tallied nine and eight apiece. McDonald tallied a career-high 31 assists, adding two service aces while Nover-Estes scored three.
Defensively, Moore tallied a team-high 11 digs, while Cook and McDonald each notched 10 and McGaffigan and Moore each had two block assists as well.