New York, NY -- The Elmira College women's volleyball team (6-16) continued their strong play this afternoon as the Soaring Eagles split a pair of matches at the Hunter Tri-Match.  Elmira dropped the opening match to host Hunter College (15-13), 3-0, before edging Rutgers University-Camden (5-21) in five sets.  The Soaring Eagles are now 4-1 in their last five matches.
 
Match One Recap
Elmira College 0, Hunter College 3 -- 25-19, 25-15, 25-22
Host Hunter College swept the Soaring Eagles 3-0 in the first match of today's tri-match.  Elmira had their chances to take the opening set after going up by as many as six points at 16-10.  However, the Hawks would win 15 of the next 18 points to claim the first set, 25-19. 
 
The second set was competitive for the majority of the time until the Hawks pulled away midway through the set when Hunter won 11 of 12 points to take a comfortable 23-13 lead which eventually turned into a 25-15 win.  Elmira nearly forced a fourth set when they took a 16-12 lead in the third but the Hawks would again make another significant run, winning eight of the next nine points to take a 20-17 lead that would result in a 25-22 win for the Hawks.
 
Kelsey Ross '16 led Elmira's offense with 10 kills, her second double-digit kill effort in EC's last three matches.  EC setter, Sami Hanes '16, totaled 20 assists
 
Match Two Recap
Elmira College 3, Rutgers University-Camden 2 -- 25-15, 16-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-10
It took a come-from-behind effort for the Soaring Eagles to pull out the second match against Rutgers University-Camden as the Purple and Gold trailed 2-1 before winning the final two sets for their sixth win of the season.
 
Elmira nearly had today's match stolen from them in four sets as the Soaring Eagles trailed 20-17 in the fourth set.  However, EC would win eight of the next 11 points to close out the set 25-23 and keep their hopes of a victory alive. 
 
In the final set, Elmira showed how resilient they have been in fifth sets as they took control by going up 8-4.  Rutgers-Camden cut the Soaring Eagle lead to one at 9-8 but a 6-2 run by Elmira closed the door on a comeback as EC claimed the final set, 15-10.  With the win, Elmira improves to 3-1 in five set matches this year.
 
Elmira had two players finish with 10-plus kills, including Ashley Heiman '16 and Kierstin Derr '16 who logged 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Hanes recorded 37 assists to bring her two-match total to 57.  Defensively, Elmira was led by libero Samantha Hawksley '16 who made a career-high 20 digs.  Derr and Ross also chipped in with 16 and 11 digs, respectively. 
 
The Soaring Eagles will head to Utica, NY next on Saturday, October 25th to compete in the Empire 8 Conference Tri-Match.  Elmira will take on St. John Fisher College at 2:30 p.m. before concluding the tri-match with a 5:00 p.m. tilt with Utica College.