The women’s volleyball team returned home after a disappointing weekend tour-nament in New York City. The team lost two out of the three matches of the Co-lumbia Invitational over the two days but were finally victorious in their final match against Rhode Island on Saturday, pulling off a 3-1 win.

Despite the discouraging record book, it was not all bad news for the Raiders this weekend. Sophomore Diane Seely recorded a career-high of 14 kills in the very first match against Columbia University.

Outside junior Lindsay Young also came up with some big numbers, recording a double-double with 13 kills and 11 digs. Senior Michelle McCarthy tallied 10 kills and junior setter Kaylee Fifer posted 37 as-sists. Junior Caitlin Cremin, the team’s li-bero, counted 22 digs.

Columbia commanded respect early in the first set with a 4-0 burst, but Colgate worked to even the score. The Raider of-fense shared responsibilities and came out strong with five kills, each time from a new player.

Despite the aggressive push, Colgate missed the opportunity to even the score, and Columbia went on a 9-4 run to reach an 18-11 lead. The Raiders played catch-up but were unable to close the gap. Columbia took the first set at 25-18.

Colgate came out to a better start in the second set, trading points with Columbia and tallying several kills. The score was tied at four a piece, and Seely added two more kills to the scoreboard for Colgate. Colum-bia woke up quickly, however, and went on a 9-6 run until the Raiders called a timeout.

After the break, Colgate worked to tie the score, but Columbia shut it down with a second win, 25-20.

Colgate had one more shot to get back in the match, and they were determined to take the third match. The team took an early 9-4 lead over the Lions with the help of a few Columbia errors. They extended the lead to 12-6 with aggressive offense from sophomore Kenzie Hume and Seely.

Colgate held on until the Lions took a trio of points to take a 16-5 lead. The Raiders fought back to make the score 17-16, then 20-18, but Columbia fired back to even the score at 21. Two kills later, Colgate came out victorious in a 26-24 win.

The fourth set saw some even play be-tween the two teams. The Lions were first to jump ahead into an 11-8 lead. They extended the gap to 19-11, but the Raid-ers chipped away with three consecutive points. Colgate was unable to catch up, however, and dropped the set 25-19 to end the match, 3-1.

The following day, Colgate dropped a match to Hofstra, 2-3, and was determined to end the weekend on a good note. Once again, Young and Seely lead the offense with 14 and 13 kills, respectively.

Colgate traded points with Rhode Is-land throughout the opening 28 points and the set was tied at 14. Colgate fi-nally took a three-point lead at 17-14 when sophomore Mari Faines and Hume teamed up for a double block.

Rhode Island responded with three points of its own to tie the game yet again at 17 apiece. At 21-21, the score was knot-ted again, but it was the Rams to score the final four points to pull off the 25-21 win.

The Raiders took a quick 6-3 lead in the second set, but URI responded with a 6-0 run to take a 9-6 three-point lead. The Raiders fought back, determined not to let this match slip and took the lead at 14-13 after back-to-back Seely kills.

After trading the lead several times, URI called a timeout. The break gave Colgate the energy it needed to finish off the match, and Karnes ended the set with a strike to give the raiders a 25-21 win of their own.

Colgate kept it rolling in the third and fourth sets, taking another early lead with three kills by Young and Karnes in the third set and a 9-5 lead after kills from Young and McCarthy in the fourth. The team pushed through, trading the lead with Rhode Island several times, and pulled off the last two set wins to end the match at 3-1.

The Raiders are gearing up to begin Pa-triot League play this weekend on the road when they travel to Lehigh on Saturday for a 7:00 p.m. match and Lafayette for a 2:00 p.m. start the following afternoon.

Contact Emma Barge at [email protected].