ELMIRA, N.Y. -- The Elmira College women's volleyball team will look to extend its current three-match winning streak on Tuesday, October 23, when the Soaring Eagles head to La Plume, Pennsylvania, for a match against the Giants of Keystone College. The non-conference bout is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Gambal Athletic Center.
LAST TIME OUT
The Soaring Eagles won a pair of matches at Saturday's Empire 8 Conference Crossover, hosted by Sage. The two wins were special for Head Coach
Rhonda Faunce, as she became just the 14th active coach in all of Division III to win 600 or more career matches. These wins were also signifigant because they both were of the comeback variety. In the first match of the day, EC overcame a one-set-to-none hole against the host Gators by taking three straight to earn a 3-1 victory. Elmira faced a similar situation in its second match of the afternoon against Houghton, after falling behind the Highlanders, 2-0, the Soaring Eagles rallied and won three sets in a row to sweep the weekend. Junior outside hitter
Natalie Schieder '19 played exceptionally well, as she amassed a combined 39 and two double-doubles. Schieder's classmate,
Taylor Kaznowski '19, also played fantastic on Saturday, as she also posted a pair of double-doubles in addition to 75 combined assists.
RISING UP EC LEADERBOARDS
Both Schieder and Kaznowski have continued their climb up Elmira's all-time leaderboards this season. After an impressive weekend, Schieder tied Mary Powell '94 for 10th place in program history with 1,041 kills in her illustrious career. The Alden, New York, native is just 30 kills shy of reaching Kathy Kesler '93 for the ninth spot on EC's leaderboard. Kaznowski, on the other hand, rose to sixth place amongst the Purple and Gold's all-time assists leaders with 2,313 in her career. The product of Hamburg, New York, surpassed both Molly Short '13 (2,268) and Sami Hanes '16 (2,269) over the weekend.
SCOUTING THE GIANTS
Keystone enters today's match with a 10-15 overall record after ending a three-match losing streak on Saturday. The Giants bested Manhattanville College by a 3-2 final at the Gambal Athletic Center in their most recent contest. Keystone has excelled this year in Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) matches, as it is 7-3 against league opposition. Leading the way for the Giants' offense this season has been sophomore setter Malley Bowen, who has tallied 672 assists, third-most in the CSAC. Taylor Beatty has been a main recipient Bowen's noteworthy passing, as she leads the team with 163 kills. Defensively, sophomore middle hitter Amanda Hardy leads the team with 0.55 blocks per set, which ranks fourth in the league.
SERIES HISTORY
Today's match will mark just the third all-time meeting between the Soaring Eagles and the Giants. In those bouts, Elmira is a perfect 2-0 and has not dropped a set. The most recent contest between these two teams came on October 12, 2013, when EC cruised to a straight-set win in a neutral-site bout in Cazenovia, New York.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Soaring Eagles will conclude the regular season on Friday and Saturday, October 28 and 29, at the Dig Pink Invitational, hosted by SUNY Oneonta, at the Red Dragons' Alumni Field House. Elmira will play SUNY Oneonta at 4:00 p.m. and Baruch College at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, before taking on Bard College at 10:30 a.m. and Hartwick College at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday.
