Elmira College (5-0, 0-0 Empire 8) vs. Ithaca College (7-1, 1-0 Empire 8)
Tuesday, September 15, 2015 | Speidel Gymnasium – Elmira, NY
Live Coverage | Twitter: @ECSoaringEagles

Elmira, NY -- The Elmira College women's volleyball team will look to keep the wins coming in tomorrow, when the Soaring Eagles open Empire 8 Conference play against visiting Ithaca College.  Tomorrow's E8 opener is set for 6:00 p.m. at Elmira's Speidel Gymnasium.
 
Five Matches, Five Wins
Elmira took on five non-conference opponents last week and walked away with five wins as the Soaring Eagles opened the 2015 campaign with a perfect 5-0 record.  For Elmira, this year marks the first time since 2013 that EC has posted wins through their first five matches of the year.  Additionally, Elmira has gone 5-0 to open the year in four of the last five seasons (2015, 2013, 2012, 2011).
 
Lights Out Against Mustangs
In Elmira's 3-1 win over visiting Morrisville State, the Soaring Eagles were firing on all cylinders.  As a team, Elmira posted a .314 hitting percentage on a season-high 62 kills on 137 attempts with just 17 errors.  Elmira's .314 hitting percentage is not only a season-high, it is also EC's highest success rate since a 2013 matchup with Merchant Marine Academy, when the Soaring Eagles hit .325 for the match.
 
Options, Option, and More Options
Elmira's setters have had the luxury of several hitting options through the early part of the 2015 season.  The Soaring Eagles have six players averaging 1.00 kill per set or better.  In the first five matches of the season, Elmira has had a player with double-digit kills eight times, including EC's 3-1 win over Morrisville, which saw four players log double-digit kills.
 
Conference Openers
Since 2001, Elmira has gone 12-2 in conference-opening matches, with their only losses occurring in the 2008 season to Nazareth College and in 2014 against Ithaca College.  Ithaca on the other hand is 8-4 in E8 opening games since 2001. 
 
Scouting Ithaca
The Bombers of Ithaca College enter tomorrow's conference match with a 7-1 record and a 1-0 mark in Empire 8 Conference play.  Ithaca has relied on the hitting efforts of Joelle Goldstein '18 and Katie Evans '19 through its first eight matches.  Goldstein leads the Bombers, and the E8, with a 3.15 kills per set average while Evans, the reigning Empire 8 Conference Rookie of the Week, owns a 2.63 average.  Orchestrating the Bomber attack has been Kayla Gromen '18, who leads the conference with a 9.07 assists per game average.
 
All-Time Series
Since 2001, Ithaca has gotten the better of the Soaring Eagles over the years, as the Bombers own a 17-6 record.  Starting in 2001, Ithaca won 16 consecutive matches but saw their streak come to an end in 2011, and since then, Elmira had won six straight against the Bombers until last year's five-set loss to Ithaca.
 
Looking Ahead
Following tomorrow's match, the Soaring Eagles will hit the road on Saturday, September 19th, as the Elmira women travel to compete in the New Rochelle Tri-Match.  Elmira opens play against the hosts of New Rochelle at 11:00 a.m. before wrapping-up play against Plattsburgh State at 1:00 p.m.  The Purple and Gold return to Speidel Gymnasium on Wednesday, September 23rd, when EC takes on non-conference opponent Alfred State at 6:00 p.m.