Volleyball Defeats Colgate and Binghamton

Tuesday, October 3

Syracuse, N.Y.

4:30 p.m.

Syracuse University

Colgate

Kacie MacTavish set a career high with 17 kills against Colgate

10/3/2006 10:02:10 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Colgate Box Score

Binghamton Box Score

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Syracuse defeated two instate rivals Tuesday night, defeating Colgate 3-1 (30-23, 25-30, 30-18, 30-19) and Binghamton 3-0 (30-27, 30-20, 31-29). The Orange has won three-straight matches and improves to 6-16.

It feels great (to win),” said assistant coach Carol Munger. “Our players are definitely picking it up intensity wise. It pretty much started with the South Florida match. Even though we lost, we had really good intensity. One game went 39-37 and we never gave up. So we carried that through to Georgetown and showed tonight in the Binghamton game that our urgency was pretty good.”

Munger points to the play of the middle position to SU’s recent success. Sophomore Brittany Kern and freshman Sarah Morton once again contributed to the victories with each posting double-digit kills during the night.

“In general, our middles are picking it up,” Munger said. “That makes us stronger all together. When the middles can hit, we want to set them more and that makes it easier for the outsides and harder for the blockers on the other side of the net. So, our middles have definitely started to pick it up and you can see that the ball distribution is pretty even, which is what we want to see. Usually, we have been setting the outside twice as much. We are picking it up all the way around.”

Freshmen Kacie MacTavish and Morton set career highs in kills against Colgate. MacTavish recorded 17 kills and added six digs while Morton posted 14 kills and led the team with seven total blocks (two solo and five assists). Junior Cheryl Cobbina recorded 14 kills and eight digs. Freshman Samantha Ainsworth led the team and set a career high with 26 assists and sophomore April Quigley added 24. Junior Joscie Kaup led the team with 16 digs.

The Orange scored six-straight points midway through the first game to take a 1-0 advantage. With the score knotted at 22 in the second game, the Raiders (9-8) ended on an 8-3 run to tie the match at one. Syracuse jumped to an early 18-9 lead in the third game and never looked back to take a 2-1 advantage. Trailing 16-13 in the fourth game, SU ended the match on a 17-3 run to win 3-1.

Cobbina led the team with 15 kills against Binghamton while MacTavish and Kern also recorded double-digits in kills. MacTavish posted 11 kills and added 13 digs while Kern recorded 10 kills. Morton added nine kills and four blocks and sophomore Emily Kaier posted four kills and a career-best six total blocks. Quigley led the team with 42 assists and Kaup recorded a match-high 17 digs.

The first game was tightly contested throughout. Quigley secured the game for Syracuse with a service ace on the final point. Syracuse controlled the second game, winning by 10 to take a 2-0 advantage. Binghamton (6-13) led by as many as six points in the third game but SU would respond. Syracuse would score six-straight points to take a 26-24 lead. Binghamton would answer and would have a chance to win the game at 29-28 but Cobbina and Kern responded with kills and a Binghamton attack error would give the match to Syracuse.

The Orange will look to continue its winning ways as it resumes BIG EAST play this weekend. Syracuse will take on DePaul on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Notre Dame on Sunday at 1 p.m.