ELMIRA, N.Y. -- All nine fall athletic teams were in action this past week, several of whom competed in Empire 8 contests. Highlighting the week was the women's volleyball team's 3-1 win over Utica at Speidel Gymnasium, field hockey's 3-2 comeback win over Wells and Charl Pretorius '19 of the men's golf team producing career records at the Oswego State Fall Invitational.
 
Additionally, Elmira had a handful of important announcements as well. Daniel Miranda was named the head coach of the men's volleyball team, while the dates for the second annual Under the Dome Craft Fair and the Columbus Day Hockey Skills Clinic were released.
  Fall is officially here, especially with the recent change in temperatures in the Southern Tier, which can only mean the Elmira College golf teams are gearing up to host their lone invitational of the season. Elmira welcomes a slew of teams (Utica, Hobart, SUNY Delhi, SUNY Canton, Keuka, Morrisville, Oswego and Cobleskill) to the Elmira County Club, which will serve as the site once again for this year's invitational. Play begins promptly at 10:00 a.m. with a shotgun start.
  After playing in its only home event of the fall, the Elmira women will regroup and compete in the 2016 installment of the Empire 8 Conference Championships. This year's event will take place on Saturday and Sunday, October 1st and 2nd, at the Ithaca Country Club, located in Ithaca, New York. Elmira took home a third-place finish at last season's championship and claimed a runner-up finish in 2014.
  Elmira welcomes Keuka to the Murray Athletic Center for a non-league contest this Wednesday, September 28th. The bout with the Wolves marks the beginning of a season-long four-game homestand for the Soaring Eagles. The homestand begins with two non-conference games, before concluding with back-to-back conference matches on October 8th and 9th against Hartwick and Stevens, respectively.
  This Saturday, October 1st, Elmira makes the trek to the Garden State for a 4:30 p.m. conference showdown with nine-time defending E8 champs, Stevens. The bout with the Ducks is one that each team around the Empire 8 will have their eyes on, as EC and Stevens sit in a two-way tie for fourth place in the conference standings.
  Although the draw for the 2016 ITA Northeast Regional Championships, presented by Oracle, has yet to be posted, a handful of netters from the Elmira men's team will be in action. This year's regional tournament will be hosted by Hobart College at the Hobart William Smith Tennis Center, located on the school's campus in Geneva, New York. More information on the regional tournament will be released on the Elmira College Athletics Website as it becomes available.
  Following the departure of four-year head coach, Stephen England, Elmira announced the appointment of Daniel Miranda as the successor of the men's volleyball program. Miranda comes to Elmira after spending the past year as the head coach of the Genesee Community College women's volleyball team in Batavia, New York. During his tenure with GCC, Miranda helped the team register a 34-9-2 overall record and guided the Cougars to runner-up finishes at the 2015 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region III Division III and the Western New York Athletic Conference (WNYAC) Tournaments. 
    The Elmira College Department of Athletics is pleased to announce that the second annual "Under the Dome Craft Fair" will take place on Sunday, December 4th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Similar to the inaugural event, the venue for this year's holiday craft fair will be at the Murray Athletic Center.
    Elmira will host a one-day skills clinic at the Murray Athletic Center on Monday, October 10th. There will be two sessions – one running from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. for children ages 10 and under and another session from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. for those ages 11 and older. The cost for the skills clinic is $25 per player for forwards and defensemen, while goaltenders can attend the hour-long session at no charge.
    Elmira went 1-2 last week, suffering conference losses to Ithaca and St. John Fisher, while earning its lone victory against Utica. EC began the week with a 3-0 road loss to Ithaca, before welcoming the Cardinals and Pioneers to Speidel Gymnasium for a pair of E8 matches. The Soaring Eagles suffered a 3-0 setback to the Cardinals, before topping Utica by a 3-1 final. Alicia Day '17 had a standout performance in the win over the Pioneers. The fourth-year middle hitter produced a career-high 13 kills to go along with an ultra-high .684 attack percentage, a mark that was also a career best for the senior (minimum of 10 attempts). For her efforts, Day was named the Empire 8 Conference Player of the Week for women's volleyball.
    It was a tough week for the Elmira men, who were handed a pair of losses on the road this past week. The Soaring Eagles took a 3-0 loss on the road to No. 7 regionally-ranked Vassar in a mid-week non-conference match, before dropping their first E8 contest of the year to Houghton by an identical 3-0 final. In the loss to Houghton, Haruka Okamoto '18 made a career-high 10 saves. The 10 stops made by the second-year netminder are the most an EC goalie has produced since Austin Mansell '16 recorded 11 saves in a 2014 matchup against Nazareth at Campus Field.
    The Soaring Eagles remain in search for their first win of the season after dropping a pair of road contests to Pitt-Bradford and Utica. Elmira marched into the halftime breaks of both games level with their respective opponents, 1-1. However, a second-half lapse in both contests resulted in a 2-1 loss to Pitt-Bradford and a 4-1 setback to Utica. Jordyn Rousselle '18 continued to find success on the offensive side of things with a goal in each contest. The Stillwater, New York, native has scored goals in three consecutive contests and is riding high on a four-match point streak.
    After falling by one goal in back-to-back games, Elmira was finally able to break through for its first win of the year, a 3-2 victory over Wells. Elmira erased a pair of one-goal deficits against Wells, one in the first half and the other early in the second, to secure a one-goal win. Katie Carroll '18 and Sarah McCaffrey '18 paced the Purple and Gold with three points on one goal and one assist apiece. Julia Derco '17 played the hero in the win, as her tally in the 61st minute broke a 2-2 tie and lifted the Soaring Eagles past the Express. Four days later, EC dropped a conference bout to St. John Fisher, 9-1. Derco registered the lone goal in the loss, her second tally of the season.
    Tilila El Yazidi '20 and Megan Fitzgerald '18 continued to perform at a high level in a 0-3 week for the Soaring Eagles. El Yazidi went 5-1 with an unblemished 3-0 record in singles action. She picked up straight-set wins over St. John Fisher and Oswego, while also earning a three-set victory over Oneonta, her first collegiate three-set win. Fitzgerald also had a strong showing in last week's matches with a 4-2 overall record, including a three-set singles win over Oswego. The four wins for Fitzgerald moved the Thomaston, Connecticut, native into a tie for fourth place in EC history for career wins (50), as well as a tie for fifth place for career singles and doubles victories (25).
    The Purple and Gold competed in the one-day Oswego State Fall Invitational last Monday in EC's lone tournament of the week. At the invite, which was hosted by the Lakers at the Oswego Country Club, Elmira finished in sixth place with a team score of 336 (+52), just one stroke away from a top-five finish. Charl Pretorius '19 led Elmira with a career-low 79 (+8), which helped the second-year linksman secure the highest finish of his collegiate career (T-5th). For his efforts, Pretorius was named the Empire 8 Conference Player of the Week for men's golf.
    After two challenging days at the Cortland Country Club, Elmira took home a sixth-place finish at the Martin-Wallace Invitational with a cumulative score of 774 (+198). Audrey Clarke '18 and Alyssa Ogden '17 paced the Purple and Gold with a pair of Top-30 finishes. Clarke carded a two-day score of 183 (+39), good enough to finish in a two-way tie for 25th place; Clarke shaved seven strokes off of her day one score, which helped her jump six spots on the leaderboard. Ogden turned in a 187 (+43) for a 28th-place finish. 
    Elmira turned in an 18th-place finish at the 21-team Harry F. Anderson Invitational, hosted by Roberts Wesleyan at the Matt St. James Cross Country Trails in Rochester, New York. Caitlin Malanowski '20 and Hannah Lundgren '18 were EC's top-two finishers at the invite. Malanowski finished in 103rd-place with a 5K time of 22:24.1, while Lundgren registered a time of 22:46.9 to finish 105th at the event. 
    The Elmira men produced a 20th-place finish at the 22-team Harry F. Anderson Invitational, hosted by Roberts Wesleyan at the Matt. St. James Cross Country Trails in Rochester, New York. James Fritsche '18 and Zac Park '17 finished at nearly identical times, with Fritsche edging Park by two-tenths of a second; Fritsche finished in 111th place with a time of 31:18.4, while Park ran the 8K in 31:18.6 to claim 112th place.