CORTLAND, N.Y. – Cortland never trailed the entire evening as the third-seeded Red Dragons swept sixth-seeded Oswego, 25-10, 25-22, 25-13, in the SUNYAC women's volleyball tournament quarterfinals at Corey Gymnasium.
Cortland (24-10) advances to face second-seeded Brockport in the semifinals Friday at 4 p.m. at SUNY Geneseo. Fourth-seeded Oneonta will play the host and top-seeded Knights in Friday's other semifinal match at 7 p.m., and the winners will meet in the finals Saturday at Geneseo at a time to be announced.
Bridgette Moran (Massapequa Park/St. John the Baptist),
Hannah Southcott (Princeton, WV) and
Maya Owens (Nyack) led Cortland with eight kills apiece. Moran finished with no errors in 15 attempts for a .533 attack percentage and also led Cortland with five blocks, two solo. Southcott finished with a .241 attack percentage (one error in 29 attempts) and added 14 digs.
Nadia Moore (Durham, NC/Durham School of the Arts) rang up seven kills with no errors in 22 attempts for a .318 attack percentage.
Gabby Amelio (Pine Bush) led the Red Dragons with 18 assists and five aces. She increased her career total to 200 aces to become the 11th player in school history to reach that mark.
Malley Bowen (Tioga/Tioga Central) added 15 assists and three aces and
Carly Haegele (Commack) led the squad with 16 digs.
Oswego (20-10) was led by Melissa Lussier's 15 kills and Lauren Fie's seven kills. Julia Flohr handed out 27 assists and Emily Costa paced the Lakers with 20 digs.
Cortland finished with a .303 team attack percentage with 40 kills and only seven errors in 109 attempts. Oswego, conversely, finished with a .095 team percentage with 19 errors compared to 30 kills on 116 swings.
Cortland used a 9-1 run to extend a first-set 10-5 lead to 19-6.
Nicole Van Pelt (Montgomery/Valley Central) had two kills and Moore, Southcott and Moran each had one during that stretch. In the second set, Cortland grabbed a 19-10 lead after kills by Moran and Southcott along with two Oswego errors. The Lakers, however, clawed back to within 23-21 after going on an 7-1 streak that featured four kills by Lussier and two by Shannon Stone. Moore's kill put Cortland up 24-21, but a service error cut the margin back to two. Moran wrapped things up with her fourth kill of the set.
Cortland took control midway through the third set as a 10-6 lead grew to 17-7 on a run that was highlighted by two Amelio aces, two Cortland blocks and kills by Moore and Owens. Oswego scored two straight points to close to within 17-9, but Cortland rattled off the next six points, the first three courtesy of Moran on a kill and two solo blocks, and the Red Dragons were never threatened.
Cortland advances to the SUNYAC semifinals for the first time since 2015 and will look to make it to the finals for the first time since winning the league title in 2012.
