Houghton, NY – The Geneva College women's volleyball team headed to New York for the weekend to tune up for next week's Presidents' Athletic Conference Tournament. The Golden Tornadoes will open conference tournament play on Tuesday night at home against Grove City in the quarter-finals. On Friday night, the Golden Tornadoes played the first of three matches at the Houghton College tournament against the host Highlanders. After the two teams split the first two sets, Geneva took control of the match and closed out Houghton by the score of 3-1. Geneva won the first set 25-19 before Houghton turned the tide and upended Geneva by the same 25-19 score in the second set.
The Golden Tornadoes won the all-important third set 25-23 after nearly blowing a seven point lead late in the set. Geneva kept its momentum into the fourth set and cruised to a 25-17 win to close out the match.
Geneva has now won three in a row and moved its overall record to 16-11 on the season. Houghton dropped to 11-17 on the season.
Geneva featured a very well balanced offense at the net with five different players posting at least seven kills.
Sydney McNulty led the way with 12 kills while Kasey Costal posted nine and
Allyssa Kerr added eight.
Daphne Hunsinger and
Elana Hoppel each added seven kills in the victory. Hunsinger finished the match with 28 assists. Defensively,
McKenna Shick led the way with 22 digs with McNulty (13) and
Grace Holdeman (11) also added double digit dig numbers.
"It was a long day for everyone," said head coach
Wendy Smith. "Traveling up here during the day and playing that same night is never easy but I was extremely proud of our effort. We have to make the most of this weekend and really get prepared for next week when the matches take on a whole new meaning in the post-season."
Geneva will close out its time this weekend with two more matches tomorrow afternoon. The Golden Tornadoes will face Keuka College at noon and will take on SUNY-Cortland at 2 pm. Geneva's quarter-final match against Grove City on Tuesday is scheduled to begin at 7 pm.
Geneva College is a Christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to God and neighbor. Offering over 80 traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs, and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. U.S. News & World Report ranks Geneva as a Top Three Best Value Regional University with one of the Top 100 engineering programs in the nation. Adhering to the truth of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God's Word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today's world.
