Cornell falls in five in national debut

Cornell's historic volleyball season ended Friday afternoon with a five-set loss to 16th-ranked Elmhurst - 25-17, 20-25, 18-25, 25-21, 15-10 - in the first round of the NCAA Division III Championships at Washington University Field House.

The Rams put up a fight in the program's first-ever appearance in the national tournament. Head coach Jeff Meeker's squad rallied from a 1-0 deficit to take a 2-1 lead into the fourth set. Elmhurst pulled away from a 12-12 tie in Set 4 and then held off a late Ram comeback in the final set to secure the win.

Cornell finished a banner-filled year at 28-6, posting the second-most wins in school history with a squad featuring five key freshman contributors. The Rams earned an automatic berth to nationals last weekend by winning the Iowa Conference Tournament in their final season in the league.

The loss snapped a school-record 14-match winning streak for Cornell. The team's last setback came against this same Elmhurst squad (31-5) in four sets on Oct. 7 in the UW-Platteville Tournament.

Freshman middle hitter Taylor Dicus recorded match highs of 14 kills and 10 blocks (9 assisted). Sophomore Kathleen O'Connor capped an MVP season with 10 kills and 20 digs. Katie Sickelka and Kirtley Hitt finished with eight kills apiece, while Samantha Pedersen added seven.

Freshman libero Kylea Weber led the Rams with 28 digs. Sabrina Hargis dished out 39 assists and served three aces. Hitt was in on seven blocks. Hargis and Kayla Gained finished with 15 and 14 digs, respectively.