PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College women's volleyball team defeated Hartwick College three sets-to-one (25-15, 25-21, 21-25, 25-23) Saturday at Manning and Napier Varsity Gymnasium. The Cardinals, who already clinched the E8 Regular Season Championship Friday, finished their conference schedule with a perfect 7-0 record while moving to 20-8 overall. Hartwick drops to 13-10 on the year with a 3-4 record in league play.
Sophomore
Alea Steigerwald led all players with 15 kills and 19 digs. Junior
Rebecca Hay put up a game-high 40 assists. Also in double-figures in kills were freshmen
Lindsey DeBonis and
Lauren Gilbert who had 13 and 12 kills respectively.
The first set was back-and-forth until a four-point surge by the Cardinals put them up, 15-9. A 4-0 run gave Fisher set point at 24-14. They would claim the opening frame two points later.
The Cardinals never trailed the entire second set. Freshman
Sydney French earned two service aces during a 4-0 run that put Fisher on top, 13-7. The Hawks cut the lead to one but that is the closest they would get as the Cardinals won three of the last four points to earn a two sets to none advantage.
Hartwick fought back in the third set. After shifting the momentum to take a 13-10 lead, the Hawks would hold onto the lead for the rest of the frame to force a fourth stanza.
After going down 3-1 early in the fourth, the Cardinals turned on the jets with a ten-straight points to take a commanding 11-3 lead. Steigerwald had three kills while Hay had two aces during the run. From there on it was smooth sailing for Fisher. A four-point run made it 20-10 and then a Steigerwald kill set up match point for the Cardinals. DeBonis secured the victory with a kill set up by Hay.
To go along with her 13 kills, Gilbert recorded 13 digs as well. Hay was the fourth Fisher player to have a double-digit digs day with 11.
Kelly Greapentrog's squad defended home court well this year with a 6-0 regular season record at Varsity Gym.
Fisher completes its regular season schedule at the Brockport Invite next weekend. The Cardinals take on St. Lawrence University at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.
