Volleyball Cougars Sweep Two Opponents in Pod Play at Erie

The Genesee Community College volleyball team swept two matches and fell to a nationally-ranked opponent in a third match in pod play to go 2-1 at the Burt Flickinger Center in Buffalo.

The pair of wins today gave Genesee seven in its last 11 starts. In its three matches Sept. 22, the Cougars scored 204 points and allowed 178 collectively.

Genesee started the morning with a 3-0 win over host Erie by scores of 25-20, 25-23, 25-14. The win avenged the Cougars' opening-season loss to Erie in the first week of September. During that first contest, Genesee took the third set after losing the first two by a pair of points. Then Genesee believed they were close enough to have swept the Kats in that opening match in the first week of September and today they brought that sweep to fruition.

Ana Carolina Cerezer Pinto led the team in digs (14) and kills (12), while Kaitlyn VanSkiver had a team-high three aces.

Genesee also swept Niagara County with a 3-0 win by sets of 25-14, 25-16 and 25-16. Pinto led the team in kills (8) and aces (4), while Grace Zandrowicz had a team-high 14 digs.

In the Cougars' middle set, they dropped to nationally-ranked No. 7 Jamestown in three sets. Of the three, Genesee came within a pair of points in the middle set in losing 25-23, while scoring 13 and 18 points in the other two sets. Pinto led the team in kills with seven, Audriana Reeves had a team-high nine digs and Katherine Alsworth led in aces with three.

Lyndsey Rowland was a force at the net with 13 blocks on the day. She led Genesee in blocks against each opponent with a half-dozen against Niagara County, four versus Erie and three against Jamestown.

Genesee will host its last regular-season match Sept. 27 against Mercyhurst North East at 6 p.m.