Box Score

RALEIGH, N.C. – The Colgate women's volleyball team went the distance with Virginia Commonwealth in the first match of the Midtown Invitational, but the Rams came out with the 3-2 (20-25, 27-25, 21-25, 26-24, 15-12) win on Friday.

Colgate (6-4) got a great effort from Diane Seely and Kathleen Harris with 17 kills apiece with Seely hitting over 41 percent. Kaylee Fifer had 50 assists in the match and it was her second time this season with 50 or more and she added 11 digs. Caitlin Cremin added a team-high 20 assists.

"Our team played their hearts out and I couldn't be more proud," head coach Ryan Baker said. "VCU beat Tennessee last weekend and went five with Kentucky, so we played a quality opponent.

"Diane was unstoppable and our defensive specialists were great once again," Baker added.

The Rams (10-2) were led by Romana Kriskova, who was tough to stop as she had 25 kills on 59 attempts and hit over 25 percent. Cecilia Aragao posted a triple-double with 10 kills, 11 digs and 40 assists. Amanda Love had a team-high 18 digs.

Colgate recorded 62 kills to VCU's 56, but the difference in the match was the block advantage at 19-9 in favor of the Rams. VCU also had 12 aces to Colgate's five.

The first set showed that Colgate was not intimidated by the 9-win Rams as the Raiders had a 17-13 advantage with Harris tallying back-to-back kills, but the Rams fired back and tied it up at 17-17 with four-straight points. The teams traded points until Colgate finished off the first set with a 6-1 run to win 25-20. Lindsay Young and Kate Reilly recorded kills during the run.

The Rams answered with a tight 27-25 win in the second set. Colgate got an early lead, but the Rams came back and went up 18-14 with a kill from Aragao. The Raiders were not fazed as they scored six of the next eight points to tie the set at 20-20. Colgate had a chance to close out the set at 25-24, but three-straight points from VCU, including a kill from Kriskova, gave the set to the Rams.

The momentum did not stay with VCU after its second-set win as Colgate took a 2-1 lead with a 25-21 win. The Raiders put the loss behind them and jumped out to a 15-7 lead with four kills from Seely and two from Harris and Young. The Rams tried to get back into it and cut the lead to three at 23-20, but Colgate put it away will kills from Seely and Fifer.

Colgate kept the momentum in the beginning of the fourth set with an 18-13 lead after back-to-back strikes by Seely and Fifer. VCU crawled back in the match and tied it at 19-19 with Saige Gallop posting three-straight kills. The Raiders responded with Harris adding two kills to gain a 24-22 advantage. However, Colgate had trouble with match point as VCU scored the next four points to win 26-24.

The fifth set was another heart-stopping set with the Rams earning a 6-3 lead with a 5-0 run. Colgate responded again and took a 10-8 lead with a kill by Harris, but the Rams settled down and scored seven of the final nine points to edge the Raiders by a 15-12 score in the set and 3-2 in the match.

Colgate is back on the court tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. against N.C. State. The match will be live streamed on gopack.com.