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Canisius University Athletics

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Canisius' Ella Bourque sets a ball for a teammate in a MAAC match against Marist at the Koessler Athletic Center on Oct. 14, 2023.
Anthony Militello
3
Winner Bucknell Buck 6-1,0-0 Patriot
2
Canisius Canis 4-4,0-0 MAAC
Winner
Bucknell Buck
6-1,0-0 Patriot
3
Final
2
Canisius Canis
4-4,0-0 MAAC
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 5 F
Bucknell Buck 25 26 23 18 15 (3)
Canisius Canis 18 24 25 25 10 (2)

Game Recap: Volleyball |

Volleyball Falls Short of Comeback Against Bucknell

Trailing 2-0 at the intermission, the Canisius volleyball scored a pair of wins in set Nos. 3 and 4 to force a fifth and deciding set, but eventually fell to Bucknell 3-2 on the second day of the 2024 Ellicott Hotels Western New York Invitational Friday night at the Koessler Athletic Center. The Bisons won the match by scores of 25-18, 26-24, 23-25, 18-25, 15-10.

With the victory, Bucknell improved to 6-1 on the season with its sixth-straight win, while the Griffs slipped to 4-4 on the year with their second-straight defeat.

For Canisius, junior setter Ella Bourque recorded a match-high 43 assists in the losing cause, becoming the ninth player in program history to pass the 2,000 career assists mark. Senior Kara Zaucha put down a team-high 15 kills to go with 13 digs, while sophomore Lauren Hubert added 13 kills, nine digs and two block assists to her final stat line. Senior libero Jillian Hanna collected a match-high 27 digs for the Blue and Gold in the five-set loss, the Griffs' first five-set match of the season.
 
Bucknell's Sidney Shaffer led all players with 16 kills to go along with five digs, a solo block, two block assists and two service aces. Her teammate, Tijana Kostic, was good for 10 kills, 12 digs, four service aces and three block assists to help the Bison effort, as the team ended the contest by hitting .208 on the night.

Out of intermission, Canisius trailed the match 2-0, but extended the evening thanks to a 25-23 win in the third set. In that frame which featured 13 ties and seven lead changes, the Griffs took a 23-19 lead late thanks to a service ace by junior Bella Mosquera, one of her three aces on the evening. Bucknell would not go away, however, scoring the five of the set's next six points to make the score 24-23, but Canisius closed out the set with the 25-23 win thanks to a kill from Zaucha.

In the fourth set, Canisius trailed 6-5 early, but used a 6-0 run to take an 11-6 lead, with two of those points coming from Mosquera service aces. Later in the set, Canisius led 13-11 before pushing forward thanks to an 8-0 scoring surge that put the home team in the lead at 21-11. Down the stetch, Bucknell never got any closer than six points, as the Blue and Gold forced the match to a fifth set thanks to the 25-18 victory.

An ace from Zaucha tied the fifth set at 8-8, but the Bison took advantage of three Canisius attack errors to score five of the frame's next six points to make the score 13-9 in favor of the visiting team. One last kill by Kostic and then a block assist by Kostic and Shaffer on match-point closed out the fifth set at 15-10, giving Bucknell the victory.
 
Bucknell took a 1-0 lead in the match after the Bison hit .222 as a team in the opening frame, while holding Canisius to a .057 attack percentage en route to a 25-18 victory. In the second set, Canisius led 24-23 after a kill by Hubert, but the Bison scored the final three points of the frame to secure the 26-24 victory for a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
GAME NOTES
• Friday marked the 16th all-time meeting between these two programs in a series that dates back to 1991.
• Bourque is the first Canisius player to pass the 2,000 career assist milestone since former Griff Cassidy Ceriani reached the mark in the 2018 campaign.
• Zaucha's double-double performance was her fourth of the season and the 24th of her career.
• Graduate student Sofia Hedqvist extended her string of matches with double-digit kills to three straight on Friday after she recorded 11 kills for the Griffs.
• Mosquera tallied a season-high 11 kills on Friday as well.

UP NEXT
Canisius will return to action Sept. 20 when the team plays two games on the first day of the Duquesne/Robert Morris Invitational. The Griffs' first match will be against Central Michigan in Moon Township, Pa., and the contest will start at 11 a.m. The Blue and Gold will also play at Robert Morris Sept. 20, with that match set to start at 6 p.m.
 
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