women's volleyball

The Genesee Community College women’s volleyball team dropped their opening round match of the 2011 NJCAA Division II National Tournament to Cowley College (KS) in three sets on Thursday afternoon. The 16th seeded Lady Cougars went up against the overall number one seed in Cowley, a team that increased their win streak to 20 games with the win on Thursday.

Behind strong serving and size up front, Cowley built a 5-0 lead to begin the match and did not trail in the opening set, winning 25-12. GCC started strong in the second set, taking a 5-2 lead before the Lady Tigers came back to regain momentum and win the second set 25-12. Genesee stayed with Cowley to start the third set, trailing 8-11 at one point, before the Lady Tigers won the next six points and eventually went on to win the third set 25-10.

Genesee (22-20) will play in a consolation match tomorrow at 12pm. They will take on Iowa Central who lost their opening round match to Central Community College on Thursday afternoon.

The Genesee Community College women’s volleyball team has qualified for the NJCAA National Tournament after winning the District L Tournament this weekend in Randolph, New Jersey.

Genesee began the tournament playing the Community College of Rhode Island and defeated the Lady Knights in three sets, 25-14, 25-7, 25-18. In the opening round win, Carrie Blunt recorded 12 kills and Deliane Lessard added 7. Sabrina Wilhoite led the team with 17 assists while Paige Tilert tallied 39 digs.

The Lady Cougars next took on Monroe College and recorded another three set victory, 25-16, 25-17, 25-16. Strong serving was key in the win as Maria Antsupova and Lessard each had five aces. Blunt had another strong match with 13 kills and Karin Davis chipped in with 18 assists. Tilert also had a strong match with 52 digs. With the win, GCC advanced to the District Championship match.

In the Sunday final, Genesee squared off with Monroe College once again after the Lady Mustangs defeated the County College of Morris to compete for the title. The match went four sets with Genesee coming out on top 25-19, 17-25, 25-21, 25-11. Antuspova had 45 digs in the win, Blunt tallied 13 kills and Wilhoite added 20 assits.

Genesee will move on to the NJCAA National Tournament which will take place in Perrysburg, Ohio. The three-day tournament will begin on November 17th with the National Championship match taking place on the 19th.

The Genesee Community College Women’s Volleyball team finished in 2nd place at the 2011 Western New York Athletic Conference Tournament, losing only to Niagara County Community College in the finals on Saturday afternoon.

After a double bye to start the tournament, the Lady Cougars knocked off Erie Community College in four sets, 25-20, 15-25, 25-23, 25-22, in the semi finals and moved on to the championship.

The final match was a rematch from October 18th against Niagara County Community College. NCCC handed Genesee their first conference loss of the season in four sets earlier in the week. The Lady Thunderwolves came out on top once again, downing GCC in three sets (10-25, 16-25, 17-25) to claim the WNYAC Tournament title.

“We were flat. We just never got on track in the finals,” said head coach Jim Mercer.

Tournament totals:

Paige Tilert: 81 digs, 11 kills

Deliane Lessard: 35 digs and 20 kills

Sabrina Wilhoite: 25 assists and 5 aces

Maria Antsupova: 74 digs and 5 aces

Carrie Blunt: 23 kills

Kristie Barger: 94 digs

Paige Tilert (Derby, NY) was named to the WNYAC Tournament first team and Carrie Blunt was named to the third team. The Lady Cougars will now shift focus to the Regional Tournament. They will host an opening round game on Tuesday, October 25th at Genesee Community College at 6pm.

The Genesee Community College Women’s Volleyball team lost their first conference match of the season, falling in 4 sets to Niagara County Community College.

The Lady Cougars came out firing and took the first set 25-19. After falling behind early, Sabrina Wilhoite (Letchworth, NY) served to four straight points and Genesee did not trail again.

The second set was the turning point in the match. Close throughout, GCC had a chance at set point up 24-23 but could not convert. The Lady Cougars would face and survive three Niagara set points before the Lady Thunderwolves prevailed and won the set 29-27.

With the momentum from the second set, Niagara took the next two sets to put away the match, 25-16 and 25-21.

Maria Antsupova (Ozersk, Russia) lead the team with 55 digs while Kristie Barger (Lima, NY) added 40 and Paige Tilert (Derby, NY) chipped in with 35. Deliane Lessard (Rochester, NY) had 6 kills and 5 assists and Carrie Blunt added 9 kills.

The loss for Genesee is their first loss in the Western New York Athletic Conference (7-1). The Lady Cougars fall to 17-18 overall and will now move on to the WNYAC tournament beginning at 9am on Saturday, October 22nd.

The Genesee Community College Women’s Volleyball team went 3-1 at the Hagerstown Community College volleyball tournament this weekend, losing only in their final match of the tournament to Rockville 22-25, 25-22, 21-25, 20-25.

Paige Tilert was named the tournament MVP. She ended the tournament with 84 digs, 17 aces and 9 kills. Named to the all-tournament team were Carrie Blunt and Sabrina Wilhoite. Blunt finished the weekend with 32 kills, 15 digs and 2 blocks. Wilhoite tallied 49 aces, 19 digs and 6 aces.

Maria Antsupova had a strong tournament with 105 digs, 17 aces and 16 kills. Kristie Barger added 95 digs, 16 aces, 3 blocks and 10 kills. Karin Davis lead the team with 62 assists and added 11 aces. Olivia Engel contributed 20 kills and 9 blocks, and Deliane Lessard had 59 digs, 32 kills, 15 blocks and 10 aces.

The Lady Cougars will host Niagara County Community College for their next match on Tuesday, October 18th at home at 6pm.

For several weeks now, the Genesee Community College Women's Soccer Team has been No. 1 in the nation!

It's been an exciting season for both soccer and volleyball at the college, and this week continues the thrill as both teams head off to national and district competitions, respectively.

The Soccer Team left Wednesday for a second consecutive NJCAA National Tournament appearance, held this year at Prince George's Community College in Maryland.

Ranked as the top NJCAA Women's Soccer team in the nation for several weeks, they have great expectations for ttoday's game against Ocean Community College.

Last Saturday at Tompkins County Community College, GCC's Women's Soccer Team (17-1-2) defeated Mohawk Valley Community College (12-4-3) 3-2 in an exciting overtime win to earn the NJCAA Region IIIA Title.

As 2010 Region III Award Winners, GCC also captured other major honors with Head Coach Kelly Gillow named NJCAA Region III Coach of the Year, and sophomore captain Jessie Jaszko (Batavia)  named NJCAA Region III Player of the Year.

The All-Tournament soccer team players from Genesee included: Jessie Jaszko (Batavia), Adele Zeh (Nunda), and Ali Cashmore (Akron). The Tournament MVP was Catherine Mucha (Dalton).

"It has been an amazing year with the team consistently coming together both on the offense and defense," Gillow said. "We are looking forward to Thursday's event and continuing the synergy in another heated game."

Inside the gym, another team of incredible athletes from Genesee have also been making a name for themselves.

Genesee's Women's Volleyball team hosted Mercyhurst NE in the Region III, Division II Championship finals last week and won the title beating Mercyhurst in three with scores of 25-13, 25-14, and 25-10.

Genesee (34-8) got off to a good start with Mikela Caseria's (Mililani, HI) crisp serving and 12 assists. Genesee also got good production from Sarah Ward (Rochester) producing 14 kills and five digs. While Maria Antsupova (Ozersk, Russia) and Kristie Barger (Lima) took control of the first two games with eight kills/two aces and 14 digs, respectfully.

Mercyhurst got off to a great start in the third game rallying to a 7-2 lead, whereupon Kristie Barger entered the game with great serving to put GCC back into the game. Mercyhurst again took the lead and with GCC down 7-8 Shelly Fuller (Trumansburg) entered the game and served 12 consecutive points to place GCC comfortably in the lead.

Fuller also contributed 12 assists and four aces in the match. Maria Anstupova finished the match by serving two aces. Region III, Division II All-Tournament team honors went to Paige Tilert, Mikela Caseria, Maria Anstupova and Sarah Ward.

In addition, Sarah Ward was named the Tournament MVP.

The Women's Soccer Team will be playing in the district-wide tournament this weekend with their sights on heading off to the Nationals in Wisconsin later this month.

GCC Women's Soccer Team roster:

Dzindzi Asamoah-Wade, CM,  Rochester; Ali Cashmore, F, Akron; Jasmine Coley, D, Rochester; Mollie Culmone, GK, Brockport; Kelsey Fenton, F, Batavia; Cady Hume, M/F, Batavia; Jessie Jaszko, F, Batavia; Jessica Klug, F, Alden; Shelby Koenig, D, Brockport; Jessica Laudico, D, Holley; Brittany Luckey, M, Le Roy; Sarah McGrath, D, Churchville; Anna Mucha, D, Dalton; Catherine Mucha, D, Dalton; Kristen Paris, D, Holley; Marissa Pecora, F, Rochester; Carly Shaw, D, Kendall; Katie Smith, M, Akron; Emily Troup, M/D, Holley; Jessica Veltre, D, Churchville; Shelby Walsh, M, Rochester; Adele Zeh, GK, Nunda.

GCC Women's Volleyball Team roster:

Maria Antsupova, S, Ozersk, Russia; Kristie Barger, OH, Lima; Austin Bishop, OH, Toronto, Canada; Mikela Caseria, S, Mililani, Hawaii; Megan Curry, OH, Byron; Dawn Dodd, M, Daleville, Ind.; Michelle Fuller, DS, Trumansburg; Danielle Kelsey, RS, Corfu; Deliane Lessard, OH, Rochester; Hannah Scott-McGrail, MH, Batavia; Paige Tilert, LIB, Derby; Sarah Ward, OH, Rochester; Alex Wysocki, MH, Hamburg; Marie Zimmerman, S, Medina.

For further information please contact Peggy Sisson, athletic director of Genesee Community College team at 585-343-0055 x 6239 or email:

<http:// MSisson@genesee.edu>