CHICOPEE, MA—Despite some impressive performances, the York College women's volleyball team dropped a pair of matches at the Elms College Blazer Invitational on Saturday. York lost a tight match to SUNY Cobleskill, 3-1 (25-18, 25-21, 23-25, 25-23), before being swept by host Elms College, 3-0 (25-17, 25-5, 25-20).
The match versus Cobleskill could have gone either way, with three of the four sets going down to the wire. After dropping the first set, York trailed by just one point late in the second (22-21) following an
Allison Ahmed kill. However, Cobleskill rattled off three straight points to take the set.
In the third, York picked up the win, thanks to a 6-0 run late in the set that propelled them to a 20-14 advantage. With
Argenis Contreras serving, York got a pair of kills from
Shauncia McClendon and another from Ahmed, mixed in with three other York points.
In the fourth set, Cobleskill (3-0) jumped out to a 4-0 lead and York spent the rest of the set playing catch up. In the waning moments of the match, York closed to 24-23 after a Cobleskill attack error. However, Cobleskill regrouped, recording a kill on the next point to clinch the match.
In the loss,
Shauncia McClendon led York with a match-high 15 kills, to go along with three aces, 12 digs and three blocks. Ahmed added six kills with 18 assists, two aces and four digs, while Contreras notched four kills, two aces and 14 digs.
Wilnoska Perez and
Chayana Jimenez each had nine digs.
In the second match, York had trouble stopping the Elms attack. The Blazers recorded 30 kills with just eight errors (.278). Meanwhile, York hit just -.027 for the match. The Cardinals could not stop Danielle Redding, who led the Blazers with 11 kills and no hitting errors.
York got five kills and five digs from McClendon.
Tiandra Jones chipped in nine digs, while Ahmed and Jimenez had eight apiece.
Elms (1-2) was not threatened in the first or second sets, but York made things interesting in the third, taking an early 8-7 lead until a 6-0 Elms College run turned the tide.
York (0-3) returns to action on Thursday with its home opener against Yeshiva University at 8 p.m.
