Women's Volleyball Captures RIT Invitational Crown With Sweep of Nazareth

Violets Win In Rochester for the Sixth Time in Seven Years

Freshman Natalie Fernandez was named to the All-Tournament team.

Led by an MVP effort from freshman Kendyl Dunn, the New York University women's volleyball team easily swept past Nazareth College to win its sixth RIT Invitational crown, Saturday, September 19, in Rochester, NY.

The Violets (12-1) came out of the gate firing and never allowed the Golden Flyers (8-6) to gain their footing, winning the championship match in just one hour 3-0 (25-13, 25-9, 25-20).

“It was great to see every member of the team contribute on such a high level this weekend,” said head coach Ed Caesar following the match. "The team is progressing very well week to week and I look forward to watching them handle the challenges that are coming up in the next few weeks.”

Leading the way on offense, Dunn, who was named tournament MVP after the match, tallied her fourth double-digit kill performance of the weekend, putting down 12 while hitting .667 with two blocks. For the weekend, Dunn notched 54 kills and hit .455 while adding 10 blocks.

Joining Dunn on the All-Tournament team, fellow freshman Natalie Fernandez also notched 12 kills and hit .381 while also adding two blocks and a service ace. Fernandez finished the weekend second on the team in kills with 36 and also led the team with nine service aces.

Junior libero Rachel Sawyer finished her weekend by tallying 11 digs and led the team with four service aces. Over the course of the tournament, Sawyer put up 73 digs (5.62/set) along with seven service aces.

Also putting up big numbers on defense against Nazareth were senior captain Jess Storer and sophomore captain Elizabeth Dick who put up 16 and 10 digs respectively.

For the Golden Flyers, freshman Aubrey Cooke recorded seven kills while senior Mallorie Clary put up nine digs.

In the semifinals, NYU recovered from a first-set loss to defeat conference rival University of Rochester in four sets.

The Violets fell 25-21 to the Yellowjackets (9-4) in the first set before recovering to advance to the championship match for the sixth time in seven years with a 3-1 (21-25, 25-16, 29-27, 25-15) win.

Recording her first 20-kill match of her career, Dunn led the offense with a.366 hitting percentage as well as four blocks including two solos.

Also in double-digits on offense was Dick who put down 11 along with six digs and two blocks.
Fernandez put together the first double-double of her career, notching 10 kills and 11 digs while also adding two service aces.

On defense, Sawyer reached a career milestone as she surpassed 1,000 digs for her career with her 27 in the match. Sawyer becomes just the fourth Violet to reach the 1,000 digs plateau since the beginning of the rally-scoring era in 2001.

Also putting up double-digit digs were Storer and sophomore Britney Messier. Storer also added six kills and a team-high four service aces while Messier passed a perfect 14-14.

For the Yellowjackets, freshman Kelly Murley led the team on both offense and defense as she notched 21 kills and 22 digs.

The Violets return to action next weekend when they travel to Cambridge, MA to take part in the MIT Invitational Friday-Saturday, September 25-26. The tournament schedule will be released early next week.