La Plume, Pa. – The Elmira women's volleyball team took on the Wilmington Quakers and the Keystone Giants in day two of the Spirt of Service Classic.
MATCH 1 | vs. Wilmington, 3-0 (25-9, 25-10, 25-11)
After a tough loss on day one of the classic, EC stayed optimistic heading into day two looking for their first win of the season. The Wilmington Quakers deemed to be a tough match-up as the Soaring Eagles fell in three sets.
Leaders – Morgan Sica carried her dominance over into day two as she led Elmira in match one with nine kills.
Ellora Bynoe and
Aimee Bridges both contributed three kills of their own to aid the Soaring Eagles.
Play-by-play – Sica put Elmira on the board first with an immediate kill to start off the first set. Bridges then added in a kill of her own to tie it back up early 3-3. Wilmington found a break and took the lead while Sica and Bynoe continued to try and cut the deficit (13-8). The Quakers would then go on an 11-point run to create quite a gap, only allowing Bridges to lay down a final kill before they closed out the first set 25-9.
Wilmington hit the scoreboard first in the second set, creating a five-point advantage early. A kill from Sica and an ace from
Vicki Titus put the Soaring Eagles on the board (5-2). The Quakers continued to widen the gap, EC finding points from Sica, Bynoe and
Averleigh McFarlan. With the Soaring Eagles final kill from Bynoe, Wilmington shut down the second set 25-10.
Ava Remscheid opened up the third set with her first kill of the season followed by a
Madalyn Devonshire kill to even out the scoreboard 2-2. Wilmington found a eight-point run to pull away from Elmira (10-2). Sica recorded her last two kills of the match as the Quakers took the final set win 25-11).
MATCH 2 | vs. Keystone, 3-2 (18-25, 16-25, 18-25, 24-26, 8-15)
Following a difficult loss to Wilmington earlier in the day, the Soaring Eagles took on their final opponent for the weekend. In a thrilling five set match, Elmira battled the Keystone Giants that ultimately resulted in another tough loss.
Leaders – McFarlan found her spark in match two where she recorded 18 kills, her career best. She also delivered three aces, two blocks and tallied seven digs. Bynoe threw in 13 of her own kills and Devonshire laid down seven. Defensively, Remscheid earned three blocks and Titus recorded 15 digs.
Play-by-play – The first set saw the Soaring Eagles take an early 2-0 lead before the Giants responded back to tie the set at 2-2. After some back-and-forth play, Elmira put together a five-point run to build a solid advantage over Keystone 15-10. The run included two kills from Bynoe, two aces from Titus, and a Giant error. McFarlan and Devonshire added late-set kills to aid EC before Bynoe delivered the closing kill to secure a 25-18 victory in set one.
Set two opened with aggressive kills from Bynoe and Bridges, giving Elmira an early 4-1 lead. The Soaring Eagles continued to capitalize on their opportunities, with the middle of the set featuring multiple two-point rallies. McFarlan recorded four kills, while her teammates added aces to help maintain Elmira's lead over the Giants. A Bynoe kill extended EC's advantage to seven points at 20-13 before McFarlan delivered the final kill to give the Soaring Eagles a 25-16 set-two win.
The beginning of set three saw Keystone take the lead and keep Elmira within striking distance for much of the first half. Bynoe brought the Soaring Eagles within one with an exciting kill to make it 10-9,but the Giants quickly responded with a five-point run (15-9). McFarlan and Bynoe helped spark a four-point rally that cut the deficit to two at 16-14. However, the Soaring Eagles were unable to complete the comeback as Keystone took set three 25-18.
Devonshire put Elmira on the board first in set four with two back-to-back kills to give EC an early 2-0 lead. Keystone managed to tie the set and maintain a small advantage over the Soaring Eagles. A kill from McFarlan, combined with two Giant errors, cut the deficit to just two points (10-8). The latter half of the set became intense as the Soaring Eagles recorded 10 collective kills and capitalized on Keystone errors to tie the set at 22-22. Both teams fighting for the set win, Keystone found away to stop Elmira with a 26-24 win. With both teams fighting for the set victory, Keystone found a way to stop Elmira's momentum and secure a 26-24 win.
The Soaring Eagles carried their energy into the deciding fifth set, but found themselves trailing by two after kills from McFarlan and Bynoe to make it 10-8. Despite their efforts to rally, Elmira was unable to overcome the deficit as the Giants completed the comeback with a 15-8 fifth-set victory to take the match, 3-2.
Up-next – Elmira women's volleyball heads back out on the road again on the 19
th, heading down to Bryn Mawr, Pa. for the Bryn Mawr Tri-Match. First match against Gwynedd Mercy University begins at 1 pm followed by a 3 pm match versus Bryn Mawr.
For the latest and most up-to-date information on Elmira College Athletics, please visit
athletics.elmira.edu. Follow us on Twitter - @ECSoaringEagles, Instagram - @ecsoaringeagles, YouTube - @ECSoaringEagles, and Facebook by searching Elmira College Athletics.
