University of Rochester women's volleyball defeated the SUNY Geneseo Knights, 3-0, on Wednesday evening inside the Louis Alexander Palestra to win their ninth-straight match and move to 9-1 on the season, while the Knights fell to 4-8 on the year.
 
The Yellowjackets raced out to an early lead in the opening set, dominating the first set with a .289 hitting percentage, compared to just -.027 for SUNY Geneseo. Ruby Moore gave Rochester its first points of the set before a block from Myla Nover-Estes and Paige Stephenson made it 2-0.
 
Geneseo would score the next three to take the lead, but it'd be the last lead the Knights would hold in the first set. UR answered with six straight of their own off Lydia Weeks' serve, with kills from Ashley Cook and Sonia McGaffigan putting UR up five, 8-3, and forcing Geneseo to use their first timeout.
 
A service error gave Geneseo the serve right back, but McGaffigan won it back with a kill. Two points later, the Yellowjackets would get on another run, scoring four of the next five to go up six, with McGaffigan picking up another block and kill.
 
Rochester would hold a five-point lead, 17-12, just a few serves later, before reeling off three in a row to make it 20-12, and after a Geneseo timeout, the Yellowjackets would finish off the opening set with five of the last seven points of the set, with Cook and Moore combining for four kills over UR's last five points.
 
UR and SUNY Geneseo would get the second set started with back-to-back service errors before the 'Jackets went on a 6-0 run to take a 6-1 lead, with two aces from Moore highlighting the run. The Yellowjackets would add two more after a Geneseo point to go up 8-2 on a Knight attack error.
 
Rochester would keep its five-to-six-point lead for another few serves until Nover-Estes knocked down another kill and then notched an ace, forcing the Knights to take a timeout. But UR would add another out of the timeout with a kill from Cook.
 
Geneseo made their way back with a run of their own, cutting UR's lead to 16-12 and prompting Rochester to take a timeout, but the 'Jackets notched four of the next six points with an ace from McKenzie McDonald and kills from Cook and McGaffigan to go up 20-14.
 
However, a 5-0 run from the Knights brought Geneseo within a point, as the Knights took advantage of three straight attack errors, but a service error kept Rochester up by a pair, and Moore smashed a kill to make it a three-point lead.
 
Geneseo's Cecilia Dignan answered to make it a two-point deficit, but another service error brought the lead back to three. Once more, SUNY Geneseo would make it a two-point game before Caroline Hoag set up set point with a kill, and Nover-Estes' service ace finished things off for Rochester to put the 'Jackets up 2-0.
 
Rochester would again take the early lead in the third, as they looked to finish off the match, going up 6-1 behind a pair of Geneseo errors, Weeks' ace, Cook's kill and a block by Caroline Hoag and Moore.
 
However, the Knights would come back to take the lead, answering with a 5-0 run of their own down 7-3, and would take a two-point lead on back-to-back aces by Zooey Gagnier.
 
Rochester would keep things close though, preventing the Knights from extending their lead and further, before down 15-14, the Yellowjackets took a timeout.
 
Moore smashed a kill to even the score at 15-all, and the two sides would trade serves with ties at 16, 18 and 19 until UR reeled off four straight points to pull away.
 
Bri Jones knocked down a kill to put Rochester up 20-19, and Hoag scored another to make it 21-19. Megan Cahall then made it 22-19, and the Knights would call a timeout, but Jones would add another following the Geneseo timeout to make it 23-19.
 
The Knights would score the next two, but Jones and Moore finished off the set and match with back-to-back kills, giving Rochester a 25-21 set-three win, and a straight-sets win over Geneseo.
 
Offensively, Moore led Rochester with 10 kills, while Cook added nine and McGaffigan notched seven. Alexia Nelms tallied a team-high 22 assists and Katie Westerheim notched 22, while on the serve, Moore also led UR with four aces.
 
Defensively, Moore and McGaffigan each scored two blocks, while Nover-Estes tallied a team-high 11 digs, and Moore, Weeks and La'I Yuen each totaled eight.