ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Union College women's volleyball team fought hard in the penultimate conference matchup of the season, but Rochester Institute of Technology pulled away in the fourth set to finish off a 3-1 (25-16, 25-19, 24-26, 25-21) victory on Friday night at Clark Gymnasium.
 
Junior Nikki Newcomer led Union (10-12, 2-5 Liberty League) with nine kills, followed by classmate Mya Delesdernier with eight kills. Junior Denali Douglas tied for the match high with 13 digs and senior Haley Kresch flirted with a triple-double with 11 assists, nine digs and seven service aces.
 
Liv Benard had a huge match for RIT (11-16, 3-3 Liberty League) with 25 kills and 10 digs, followed by Calista Gasper with 11 kills on 19 attempts.
 
The home team led for almost the entirety of the opening set. Union closed the deficit to one at 9-8 after an RIT error, but three straight points got RIT its cushion back and Union could not get back within three the rest of the way. The Tigers hit a blistering .423 (15-4-26) in the first set to take an early lead.
 
RIT kept up the hot hitting in the second set, putting down 14 kills with two errors (.400) to take a two-set lead. The Tigers jumped out to an early 5-1 lead but Union battled back to knot the score at nine on a kill by Delesdernier. A service ace by Kresch again tied the score at 18, but a subsequent service error started a clinching 7-1 run for the home team.
 
The visitors jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the third set on the strength of four straight Kresch aces, and led by as many as seven (13-6) after an ace by first-year Georgia Pool and an RIT attack error. However, RIT came back with an 11-2 run to grab its first lead of the set at 17-15. Union tied the score four times after that before eventually taking the lead back at 23-22 on a kill from senior Keara Page. After RIT warded off one set point at 23-24, a kill by Newcomer and a block by Kresch and classmate Denesha Lafontant sent the match to a fourth frame.
 
The fourth set was tied at 12 before a string of six straight points gave RIT some breathing room. Two kills by sophomore Farah Elgala and one each from Page and Delesdernier got Union back within one at 22-21; however, a kill and ace by Benard brought up match point and RIT closed out the frame to take the win.
 
Union will close out the Liberty League schedule tomorrow at 2 p.m. at William Smith College.