HOUGHTON, N.Y. – In front of a Homecoming crowd in the Nielsen Center, the Houghton Highlanders fought back from a 2-1 deficit and down by two late in the fourth set to defeat the Elmira College Soaring Eagles, 3-2.
 
Houghton opened their day with a three set loss to Stevens Institute of Technology, who currently hold the top seed in the Empire 8.
 
After losing the first set by 12 points, Houghton fought the Ducks all the way to the end, eventually falling by three.
 
In the third set, the Ducks jumped out to a large lead, and while the Highlanders clawed their way back, they were unable to overcome the deficit.
 
In the final game of the day, Elmira held a two-games-to-one lead and a 17-15 advantage in the fourth set when Erica Barney crushed two kills in a row and Houghton took the ensuing three points to go up by three.
 
The Highlanders would take five of the next seven points to force a deciding game five, during which Houghton jumped out to a 5-0 lead and never looked back.  The home team took advantage of several visitor errors, as well as timely kills from Sidney Pow and Erica Barney.
 
The win draws Houghton back to .500, both overall and within the conference.  They currently hold sole possession of fifth place in the Empire 8.
 
Match Vitals
Match #1: Houghton – 0 | Stevens – 3 (13-25, 22-25, 18-25)
Match #2: Houghton – 3 | Elmira – 2 (21-25, 25-18, 21-25, 25-19, 15-6)
Records: Houghton: 9-9 (3-3 E8) | Stevens: 21-2 (6-0 E8) | Elmira: 4-7 (1-4 E8)
Venue: The Nielsen Center at Houghton College

Key Stats
>> Houghton out-blocked Elmira 8-1, and improved their hitting percentage from 8.8 percent against Stevens, to 23 percent against the Soaring Eagles.
>> Naomi Prentice collected 23 kills (8, 15) and five blocks (1, 4) over eight sets for the Highlanders, including a 41 percentage attack average against Elmira. 
>> The Highlanders presented a well-balanced attack in the second match, with five players collecting at least six kills.  They also evenly distributed things on defense, with five players posting double-digit dig totals and five players posting two blocks or more.
>> Anna Coryell dished out her second highest assist total in game two (39), and rallied 59 total assists on the day.

Coach's Corner
"In the first game, we just made too many errors—which is one of the things that makes Stevens a very tough team-- but the girls just kept on fighting.  I was proud of how they clawed their way back into it.
"Winning the second game in a five-set match was really big for us.  My goal for today was that we would be more consistent for longer stretches of time, and I felt like we were.  We kept on fighting the whole time.
"Today was a team thing again.  We had so many different contributors.  I thought we took some good steps forward." –Coach Nancy Cole

Next Time Out.
The Highlanders return to action on Tuesday for a non-conference road matchup against Fredonia State at 7:00pm.