Cornell volleyball fought off a set point in the fourth and beat Yale 3-1 Friday night at Newman Arena in Ithaca, avenging its only Ivy League loss and remaining in first place.
The Big Red won 25-19, 10-25, 25-22, 27-25 to improve to 14-6 overall and 10-1 in conference play, according to Cornell Athletics. Yale fell to 14-5 and 8-3 as Cornell ended the Bulldogs’ three-match winning streak in the series.
Cornell finishes strong in two tight sets
The match featured 32 ties and 19 lead changes, with nearly all of that back-and-forth coming in the final two sets. Cornell recovered from a 25-10 second-set loss by taking six of the final seven points in the third and the last three in the fourth.
Yale led the third set 21-19 after earlier erasing a 10-6 deficit with five consecutive points. Charlotte Nowak brought Cornell even with a kill and an ace. Jaida Sione followed with a kill, then teamed with Mackenzie Parsons on a block for a 23-21 lead. Another Sione kill made it 24-22, and a Yale attack error ended the set.
The third set had 14 ties and 10 lead changes. Cornell hit .130 while holding Yale to .061.
Yale moved ahead 20-17 in the fourth, but Parsons answered with a kill, a block alongside Sione and another kill to tie it. Two Yale attack errors with Parsons serving later gave Cornell a 23-21 advantage.
Ava Bogan’s kill brought the Big Red to match point at 24-23. Yale won the next two rallies to earn a set point of its own before Bogan tied it with another kill. Haley Clark served the final two points, both ending in Yale attack errors, to close the match.
The fourth set produced 16 ties and nine lead changes. Yale hit .018 with 10 attack errors in the set. Coach Trudy Vande Berg credited Cornell’s late-set decision making to the situations the team has worked on in practice.
Parsons and Bogan lead the attack
Parsons finished with 14 kills and seven blocks. Bogan had 10 kills without an error in 25 swings, hitting .400, and added three solo blocks. Sione contributed nine kills and four blocks, Sydney Zanca had seven kills, and Nowak finished with five kills, 11 digs and an ace.
Mary Wolcott returned after an injury cost her one match and led Cornell with 20 assists. Nevaeh Tien added 13 assists and 15 digs. Sara Pomar had a team-high 18 digs, nine assists and an ace, while Clark recorded nine digs and an ace.
Wolcott credited her teammates with supporting her through a difficult week as she worked back toward jumping and playing alongside them. Parsons also pointed to teammates delivering kills at crucial moments.
“They just believe in each other, and trust is the big thing this year,” Vande Berg said.
Cornell edged Yale in hitting percentage, .126 to .111, blocks, 11-10, and digs, 86-84. The Big Red had 48 kills and 43 assists to Yale’s 47 and 42. Both teams made 26 attack errors, but 16 of Yale’s came in the final two sets. Yale had eight aces to Cornell’s three and scored more rally points overall, 91-87.
Big Red rebounds after lopsided second set
Cornell opened the first set with a 13-6 lead after consecutive Zanca kills. Yale answered with five straight points and eventually tied it at 19-19. Zanca’s next kill started a six-point closing run, with Pomar serving the final five points and Parsons contributing two kills and three blocks during that stretch. Cornell hit .255 with 15 kills; Yale hit .143.
The Bulldogs controlled the second set, building leads of 6-1 and 13-3. Kalyssa Taggart served six consecutive points, including two aces, to push the advantage to 22-5. Yale had five aces in the set. Cornell hit minus .029 with five kills and six errors, and a late three-point serving run by Nowak could not erase the deficit.
Vande Berg urged Cornell to focus on its response after that set. Pomar said the team maintained its belief that it would win, even as the match brought swings in momentum and emotion.
The rematch had been a focus for Cornell since its Oct. 17 loss at Yale. “This entire week, this is what our goal was,” Parsons said.
Cornell closes its regular-season home schedule against Brown at 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, at Newman Arena. The Senior Night match will honor five seniors, including Pomar, and stream on ESPN+.
Photo: Darl Zehr Photography/Cornell Athletics.
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