Bulldog Volleyball Opens Regional Play With 3-0 Win Over NYIT

            

Quarterfinal Match 4

#2 Bryant 3, #7 NYIT 0
30-16, 30-15, 30-19
SMITHFIELD, RI – Bryant University’s Vanessa Lavallee (Gilford, NH) and Jessica Cegarra (Danville, NH) each finished with 12 kills to help lead the second-seeded Bryant women’s volleyball team to a 3-0 win over No. 7 New York Institute of Technology here at the Chace Athletic Center Thursday evening. 

The win propels the Bulldogs into the regional semifinals Friday night where they will face the third-seed Falcons of Bentley College, a 3-1 winner over UMass Lowell earlier.
Against NYIT Thursday, the Bulldogs used a balanced attack to roll past the Bears (16-16) of the NYCAC Conference.  Bryant, making its ninth appearance in the NCAA tournament, picked up a 30-16 win in the first game and came out firing in the second, blitzing the Bears with 70.0 percent hitting in the stanza, hitting on 21 of 30 attempts without an error.

Leading 20-12, the Bulldogs out-scored the Bears, 10-3 as Lindsay Klix (Rochester Hills, MI) and Michelle Muniz (Guaynabo, PR) block made it 21-12.  Beth Schlatterer (Arlington Heights, IL)  would follow with another kills down the line and the Bulldogs rode the momentum from an Elysce Tackmann (East Providence, RI) as Cegarra put the game away with a kill down the middle after an assist from Tiffany Garry (Frankfort, IL).

In the third, Bryant raced out to a 21-16 lead and never looked back as Lavallee put away two quick kills and Klix combined with Garry and Lavallee with back to back blocks and the Bulldogs would roll, 30-19.  Garry had a big match, finishing with 38 assists and four digs while Cegarra had four blocks. Muniz finished with nine kills on 21 swings and added a pair of service aces.  Schlatterer had six kills on 10 swings. 

NYIT was led by Luci Ferraro’s five kills while Olga Ivanova and Darya Skrypka each had three.  Lindsay Buss had nine assists plus four digs.  Emine Yildirimer had 10 digs defensively.