The 23rd-ranked Rams were dealt their first home volleyball defeats of the season against a pair of perennial NCAA Tournament foes Saturday inside the Small Athletic and Wellness Center.
Cornell took one set from NCAA-votes getter UW-Eau Claire in a 25-16, 15-25, 25-21, 25-20 loss to start the day. The Rams then fell by scores of 25-22, 25-18 and 25-21 to Wartburg.
Ilah Perez-Johnson recorded her eighth double-double in 10 matches with a 10-kill, 12 dig effort against UW-Eau Claire, an NCAA qualifier a year ago. The senior also had three aces against the Blugolds, who limited the Rams to .099 hitting.
Grace Marti posted a team-high 12 kills and three blocks. Clare Green dished 29 assists and Ella Becker collected 15 digs in the opener. Nia Howard added 12 digs.
The Rams ran up against a Wartburg front line that accumulated 11 blocks in the afternoon contest.
Perez-Johnson led all players with 13 kills against the Knights. Green posted 24 assists and 10 digs. Marti accounted for five block assists.
Earlier in the quadrangular, the Rams picked up a 3-0 win over Simpson.
In only the third meeting between the Rams and Storm since 2011, setter Claire Green finished with 25 assists and nine digs, just short of a double-double, as her career assists total jumped to 2,540 to become only the fifth Ram in school history to pass that milestone.
She is behind Katherine Devlin (2,761), Jillian Schulte (2,936), Hope Coffin (3,477), and Hannah Boehmer (3,926) in the record books for career assists.
Senior Perez-Johnson had a tremendous stat line as well with 13 kills, 10 digs, and two aces as she currently leads the team in four statistical categories: kills (184), digs (165), aces (32), and blocks (21.0).
Junior Kiana Manson made her Cornell debut securing seven kills and one block. Fifth-year Grace Marti had six kills, four digs, and three blocks. Sophomore Carly Puffer had nine kills and three blocks.
The Rams were hitting on all cylinders both offensively and defensively as they committed the least amount of errors of any game this season while also holding the Storm to the worst attack percentage of any of their opponents at .063.
In the third set, the Rams never surrendered the lead winning behind the Storm’s 11 errors and Perez-Johnson’s five kills.
Cornell volleyball recieves first home losses
October 5, 2023