ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. — The Bard College women's volleyball team tussled with the RIT Tigers at Stevenson Athletic Center on Saturday afternoon. 

Nyla Lawrence led the team with seven kills, hitting .294. Xenia Vassou was impressive with six kills on ten attacks plus a block. Carmen Merrick notched six kills and tied a team-high with three blocks. 

Annika Flittie had a team-high six digs to go with four kills, three blocks and two aces. Becca Wintjen tallied five digs and two kills. Ella Small recorded four digs, two assists, and a kill. Fernanda Julian put up 21 assists as well as two aces and three digs. 

RIT led 10-7 in the first set when Merrick placed back-to-back kills that sparked a 3-0 run. The Tigers were put on their back foot again at 15-12 when five straight points went to Bard. Lawrence, Small, and Vassou each put away kills to help the Raptors gain a two-point lead at 17-15. RIT struck back to lead 22-19, but Flittie had a kill and assisted on a block with Merrick to put pressure on the Tigers. The teams exchanged kills down the stretch, with RIT maintaining its slight lead. Bard had 15 kills and hit .357 in the set.

The Tigers went up 11-4 in the second set, and the Raptors had a 3-1 response to make it 12-7. RIT extended it to 16-8 before another 3-1 spurt from Bard brought the Raptors within six at 17-11. Bard saved a set point but could not fight all the way back. In the third, the Raptors won back-to-back points at 3-10 to make it 5-10. An RIT run made it 22-8 when Bard played freely and took six of the next seven points. At 23-14, the Tigers closed it out with the last two points of the match. 

Bard travels to Pratt on Tuesday at 7 p.m.