Junior middleblocker Allison Wick goes up to high point the ball as sophomore setter Morgan Michalski looks on. Wick had nine kills over the weekend during the Knights’ trip to Pittsburgh (Jenna Smolinski/ Staff Photographer).
The Knights hit the road this past weekend to take on out-of-conference opponents. They traveled to Pittsburgh, Pa. where they played Carnegie Mellon, Ohio Wesleyan and Southwestern University from Georgetown, Texas. Picking up a hard fought win against Ohio Wesleyan, Geneseo fell short in their matches against Southwestern and Carnegie Mellon.
Against Ohio Wesleyan, Geneseo was able to secure the first set 25-18. Wesleyan came back strong and took the next two sets to make it a 2-1 Wesleyan lead. Luckily for the Knights, senior outside hitter Grace Cergol tallied 20 kills and 14 digs, pushing them to take the fifth set 15-7 and the match 3-2. Senior outside hitter Abby May contributed 16 kills, while senior libero Sam Mendelsohn led the digs category with 28. Also on the highlights list is first-year setter Grace Thomas with 42 assists and three service aces.
In the first Saturday matchup versus Carnegie Mellon, the Knights were unable to capitalize on a tied match going into the third set. Geneseo narrowly lost that third set by a score of 28-26. Keeping with their trend of shining in the fourth sets of games this season, Geneseo took it 25-21, sending the match to the fifth. Although they fought hard to get the match to that point, Carnegie Mellon stole the match, winning the fifth set 15-6. Cergol and May each had 18 kills, with junior outside hitter Kiersten Colvin following them with 10. Mendelsohn once again recorded the highest number of digs for the Knights with 25, adding to her already record-breaking total. Thomas also recorded 33 assists and sophomore setter Morgan Michalski added 13 assists of her own.
In the second Saturday matchup versus Southwestern, the first three sets went similar to the Carnegie Mellon match. Southwestern took a 1-0 lead after winning the first set 25-12. The Knights tied it up in the second set with a score of 18-25. The last two sets didn’t go in favor of Geneseo as their opponent sealed the overall match victory with set scores of 25-17 in the third and 25-12 in the fourth. The game leaders were once again Cergol with 11 kills and May with nine. Frank and Thomas added 12 digs and Thomas also set up 20 assists.
During the match against Southwestern on Saturday, Cergol surpassed Kate Barth ‘08 for most career kills; Cergol has accrued 1,567 kills to date. Cergol also became the fifth player in program history with more than 1,300 digs, reaching 1,314 following the weekend.
Geneseo is the top seed for the SUNYAC and will host either SUNY Oneonta or SUNY New Platz on Friday Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. in the semi-finals. This weekend is a hosting heavy weekend for the Knights, as both men’s and women’s swimming and diving, field hockey, women’s soccer, men’s ice hockey and women’s basketball all host matches on Saturday Nov. 9.