Box Score

NEW YORK – Sophomore Diane Seely recorded a career-high 14 kills in the first match of the Columbia Invitational as the Raiders dropped a 3-1 (25-18, 25-20, 24-26, 25-19) decision to the Lions on Friday night. 

Colgate (1-9) was led by Diane Seely with a career-high 14 kills, while Lindsay Young had a double-double with 13 kills and 11 digs. Michelle McCarthy tallied double-digits in kills with 10 and Kaylee Fifer added 37 assists and Caitlin Cremin had 22 digs.

Columbia (3-4) got 17 kills from Katarina Jovicic and 24 assists from Colleen Brennan. Molly Winger was the team leader on the backline with 19 digs.

In the first set, Columbia jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but Colgate chipped away to get to within one at 7-6 with a kill by McCarthy. Early in the match, the Raiders got kills from five different players. Colgate, however missed their opportunity to even the score up and with the score at 9-8 in favor of the Lions, Columbia went on a 9-4 run to build an 18-11 lead. Colgate tried to chip away and cut the deficit to five at 18-13 and 22-17. Liz Karnes and Jackie Macy had kills to slice the lead. The Lions then closed out the first set with a 25-18 win with Katarina Jovicic earning the kill on the last point.

The teams traded points in the beginning of the second set with Young tallying two kills and Seely earning one strike, which tied the match at 4-4. Seely added two more kills following her first, but Columbia was able to open up a 9-6 lead, forcing Colgate to call timeout. The Raiders came out of the stoppage and cut the advantage to 13-11 with a Columbia error, a Young ace and a McCarthy kill. Colgate continued to fight and claw its way back from multiple deficits and got to within two at 20-18 with back-to-back kills from Seely and Young. However, the Raiders couldn't overcome the two-point advantage and Columbia went up 2-0 with a 25-20 win.

Colgate got some offense going early in the third set and built up a 9-4 lead. The Raiders were helped by a few errors, but had kills by three different players, including Kate Reilly and Cremin added an ace. The advantage increased to 12-6 with strikes by Kenzie Hume and Seely, along with a Hume ace. The Raiders were able to hold onto the lead until the Lions tallied three-straight points to take a 16-15 lead, but Colgate answered with back-to-back points to regain the advantage at 17-16. The Raiders then went up by two at 20-18 with a kill from Young, but the hosts fired back to tie it at 21-21. Colgate wasn't fazed as it got two-straight kills from McCarthy and one from Hume to give Colgate the third game at 26-24 to force a fourth set.

In the fourth set, the teams once again traded points early on until the Lions opened up an 11-8 lead on an assisted block and a kill by Jovicic. That advantage for Columbia was built up to 19-11 and the Raiders chipped away with three-straight points on kills by Young and a Lion error to make it 19-14. Columbia, however, held onto the five-point advantage and won the final set by a 25-19 score.

Colgate will be back in action tomorrow on the second day of the Columbia Invitational against Hofstra at 1:30 pm and then Rhode Island for a 4:30 p.m. start.