Cortland's Seniors (left to right): Nicole Silberer, Courtney Silberer, Sarah Piacentini, Janine Patora, Amanda May, Deja Smith and Valerie Fischer (Darl Zehr Photography)
CORTLAND, N.Y. - The Cortland women's volleyball team celebrated Senior Night at Corey Gymnasium with a come-from-behind, five-set win over St. John Fisher. The Red Dragons won 25-27, 25-17, 23-25, 25-19, 15-7.
Cortland improved to 12-14 with the win, while Fisher dropped to 21-8. The Red Dragons are now 34-0 lifetime versus the Cardinals.
Cortland honored its seven seniors - Valerie Fischer (Williston Park/Mineola), Amanda May (Baldwinsville/C.W. Baker), Janine Patora (Salt Point/Arlington), Sarah Piacentini (Webster/Webster Schroeder), Courtney Silberer (Centereach), Nicole Silberer (Centereach) and Deja Smith (Suffern) - prior to the match.
Nicole and Courtney led the Red Dragons on offense with 16 and 15 kills, respectively. Fischer added 11 kills and 16 digs and Nadia Moore (Durham, NC/Durham School of the Arts) ended with nine kills, 13 digs and two aces.
Gabby Amelio (Pine Bush) rang up 49 assists, two aces and four kills and Alexandra Graff (Apex, NC) led the Red Dragons with 31 digs along with two aces. Jessica Allen (Syracuse/West Genesee) chipped in with seven kills and May had five kills and a team-high three blocks.
St. John Fisher was led by Madison Karwas with 15 kills and Anna Marcy with 11 kills and 13 digs. Elise Kreuz and Katie Mazierski finished with 26 and 25 digs, respectively.
Cortland finished the night with a team attack percentage of .221 compared to Fisher's .111 percentage. The Red Dragons hit at a .391 clip (11 kills, two errors in 23 attempts) in the fifth set.
Cortland trailed 24-18 in the first set but rallied to score six straight to tie it at 24-24. The Red Dragons also fought off a set point on a kill by Fischer, but the Cardinals scored the next two points on an error and a Mazierski kill.
The guests cut a 12-8 deficit to 12-11 in the second, but Cortland pushed the lead to 19-14 and was never seriously threatened. In the third set, Fisher called timeout down 18-11 and proceeded to rattle off seven straight points to tie the score. The set was tied four more times, the last at 23-23, but a service error and another misplay gave the Cardinals the set.
Cortland trailed 12-9 in the fourth, but regrouped to go on a 9-1 run to take an 18-13 lead. Fisher was within three at 21-18 and 22-19, but Cortland eventually ended the set on a May kill, a Cardinal error, and an Amelio ace.
The fifth set was tied at 5-5, and Fisher was still within one at 7-6, but the Silberers helped Cortland pulled away with a 4-0 run on two kills by Courtney interwoven with a kill and an ace by Nicole. With the score 11-7, the Red Dragons finished the match with four consecutive points, capped by Courtney's kill and a Fisher attack error.
Cortland will compete at a New York Regional challenge tournament to close out the regular season Friday and Saturday. Cortland meets RIT Friday at 8 p.m. and will face Clarkson and NYU Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
