Cortland Sports Information Department
BALTIMORE, MD. – The Cortland women's volleyball team survived a Merchant Marine Academy comeback bid and the Red Dragons defeated the Mariners in four sets in the opening round of the NCAA Division III tournament at Johns Hopkins University.
Cortland (27-3), seeded second in the eight-team regional, won the first two sets comfortably, 25-12 and 25-14. The seventh-seeded Mariners (22-4), however, won the third set, 25-19, and led 23-20 in the fourth set before Cortland won the last five points for a 25-23 set victory and the match.
Cortland, making its first NCAA appearance since 2012, advances to the second round and will face third-seeded Tufts Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Tufts (19-5) swept Eastern University in Friday's opening first-round match.
Nicole Van Pelt (Montgomery/Valley Central) led Cortland with 17 kills and only two errors in 27 attempts for a .556 attack percentage and Hannah Southcott (Princeton, WV) finished with 14 kills, 10 digs and two aces. Alexa Guedez (Rye/Rye Neck) totaled nine kills with one error in 22 attempts (.364) and led Cortland with six blocks, three solo.
Ryan Hinshaw (Aurora, IL/Joliet Catholic Academy) and Meadow Wittman (Colden/Springville Griffith Institute) handed out 25 and 16 assists, respectively, with Hinshaw also leading the team with four aces. Carly Haegele (Commack) ended with 12 digs, Mikenzie Martens (Carthage) matched Southcott with 10 digs, and Wittman had nine digs. Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) posted four blocks, two solo, and Maya Owens (Nyack) added three blocks.
Paige Smith paced USMMA with 16 kills and also had 16 digs, while Taylor Gilbertson finished with 14 kills and a team-high 17 digs. Brittney Pinzon distributed 24 assists and Claire Hyun had 17 assists and 10 digs.
Cortland never trailed in the first two sets, hitting .462 (12 kills, no errors in 26 attempts) in the opening set and .379 (13 kills, two errors in 29 attempts) in the second set. The Mariners, however, turned the tables in the third set by hitting at a .238 clip compared to Cortland's .143 mark. USSMMA scored three straight points to break a 13-13 tie and never trailed from that point.
The fourth set featured eight ties and six lead changes. USMMA took a 20-17 lead on a Gilbertson block, but Cortland eventually got back to within 21-20 after a block by Owens and Fisk. The Mariners tallied the next two points on a Gilbertson kill and a Cortland error to move within two points of forcing a fifth set. The Red Dragons started their final rally with a USMMA error and a Southcott kill, and another Mariners' error tied the set at 23-23. Southcott's kill gave Cortland the lead, and an attack error by USMMA gave Cortland its match point.
