ITHACA, N.Y.—The Big Red volleyball team closed out its 2008 season tied for third place in the Ivy League with a 9-5 record and was 10-15 overall for the season. The Big Red opened its season with eight challenging matches against non-conference opponents. Throughout the season, Cornell faced four teams that would eventually become NCAA qualifiers, Liberty, Long Island, Northern Iowa and Yale. Before heading into Ivy action, the Big Red competed against seasoned teams at the Varney's Kansas State Tournament and UConn Toyota Classic.

Cornell shutout Columbia, 3-0, to begin its Ivy campaign at the Big Red Invitational. Junior Juliana Rogers led the team with a match-high 16 kills, while Borman hit an impressive .727 for the night with eight kills in just 11 attempts. The Big Red followed the next weekend with a 3-2 victory over the Lions to complete the season sweep. Rogers once again totaled 16 kills, and Mushovic tallied 25 digs. McCarthy totaled 15 kills and added 14 digs for Cornell, and Holland had 46 assists with 14 digs and five kills

Strong defensive play helped Cornell to move to 3-0 in Ivy play with a commanding 3-1 win over Penn on Oct. 10. Mushovic registered 36 digs, while freshman Kelly Hansen made nine blocks and added 10 kills. Hansen also hit .350 for the night, to mark her sixth-straight match hitting over 300. Cornell faced returning Ivy League champions, Princeton, on Saturday night. The Big Red lost, 3-0, to the Tigers, but with 18 digs, Mushovic set a new school career digs record with 1,362. Borman had a match-high 14 kills while hitting .462. The senior hit .380 for the weekend.

Cornell bounced back to its Ancient Eight winning ways the following weekend, with an opening 3-2 win at Harvard. The Big Red won the fifth set, 16-14, to capture the victory and move to 4-1 in league play. Freshman Meagan Tatum led Cornell with 18 kills, while senior Hilary Holland registered a career-high 54 assists. Hansen made a career-high 12 block assists. Borman totaled 13 kills to hit .500 in the match and added three block assists. Woodbury recorded nine kills and seven block assists. Freshman Risa Ka'awa tallied a career-high 10 digs for Cornell's back row.

The Big Red completed its Ivy weekend sweep the following evening and moved into a tie for first place in the league with a 3-2 win over Dartmouth. Hansen hit .455 with 14 kills, while Borman added 13 kills with six block assists. Holland totaled 45 assists with 15 digs, and Mushovic recorded 17 digs. Borman earned Ivy League Player of the Week honors after hitting .466 for the weekend with 26 total kills. Hansen was named to the Ivy honor roll with an average 1.60 blocks per set.

Cornell split Ivy play the next weekend, falling to Yale, but bouncing back to defeat Brown 3-1 on Saturday night at home in Newman Arena. The Big Red lost its first set to the Bears, but came back to win the next three to grab the victory. Borman led the Big Red with 15 kills, while hitting .538, and Tatum had 13 total kills, and Rogers added 11. Senior Kathryn Woodbury totaled seven kills of her own and added four block assists. Hansen led Cornell at the net with five blocks, and Mushovic totaled a match-high 23 digs. Holland recorded her 10th double-double of the season with 46 assists and 16 digs.

The Big Red dropped two matches to Penn and Princeton on the road on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, but got back to its winning ways on Nov. 7 with a 3-1 win at Brown. Rogers led the Big Red offense with 15 kills while hitting a season-high .314. Ka'awa notched a career-high 13 digs, while Mushovic had a match-high 18. Holland had 37 assists and 16 digs and five block assists. Yale played past the Big Red the following night by a 3-0 score.

Cornell played host to Dig Pink, an event to raise money for breast cancer research, at its match against Dartmouth on Nov. 14. In front of a crowd of over 1,400 people in Newman Arena, Cornell defeated the Big Green 3-1. Four Cornell hitters recorded double digit kills, with McCarthy leading the way making 14. McCarthy had 10 digs to add to her 14 kills, and Woodbury totaled 13 kills hitting .462. Hansen added 12 kills with a .550 hitting percentage, and Alessa Cekauskas notched 11 kills. Holland finished the match with 51 assists and 17 digs. Borman led the Big Red at the net with seven block assists, and Mushovic led the back row with 19 digs.

The Big Red closed out its 2008 season with a 3-2 win over Harvard on Saturday evening. Cekauskas led the team with 15 kills, while Borman had 14. The Big Red honored its three seniors Borman, Holland and Woodbury before the start of the match. Borman had five blocks to add to her 14 kills and hit .417 in the match. McCarthy totaled 10 kills and 18 digs and added three service aces. Holland finished the night with 50 assists with 17 digs and four blocks. Mushovic had a team-high 21 digs and freshman Risa Ka'awa added 10.

Cornell capped off the season with junior libero Megan Mushovic earning first-team All-Ivy honors, while senior middle blocker Emily Borman was named second-team and senior setter Hilary Holland was honorable mention.

Mushovic was named first-team for the second-straight season at libero after leading the league in digs throughout the season. She averaged 5.60 digs per set this season, which at the end of the Big Red's season was good for fifth in the nation. This season, she broke the Big Red's career digs record with a total of 1,612 so far in her three-year career. Mushovic ended the season with 23-straight matches with 15 or more digs. Her 549 digs in her junior campaign is second in the Cornell record books for digs in a season, and Mushovic holds the record from her sophomore campaign. The junior currently leads in the record books with a 5.45 digs per set average for her career. Mushovic and the Cornell defense ranked 33rd in the nation for digs per set with 16.35.

Borman led the Big Red with a .355 hitting percentage this season, which was good for third in the Cornell record books. With a .350 hitting percentage against league opponents, she ranked fourth against the Ivy League. Borman totaled 71 blocks for the season, and ranked seventh in blocks against Ancient Eight foes. This season she notched double-digit kills in 14 matches, and hit above 300 in 17 contests. Borman also notched five or more blocks in eight matches. The senior ends her four-year career ranked third with a .318 hitting percentage. Borman was also named second-team All-Ivy as a junior.

Holland served as the Big Red's team captain this season and was the starting setter for every match in her senior year. She ended the season with 952 assists to average 9.71 assists per set. Against Ivy League opponents she averaged 9.98 assists per set and 3.07 digs. Holland proved to be a valuable asset to the Big Red in all areas of play this season, also making 47 vital blocks for the Cornell defense. She was second on the team with 285 digs. Holland was named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic District 1 first team and was the only Ivy League player to advance to the national ballot for Academic All-America honors. The senior hit above .400 in nine matches this season and recorded 15 double-doubles. Holland recorded 40 or more assists in 12 matches. She recorded a career-high 54 assists at Harvard on Oct. 17, and had a career best 21 digs against Maine on Sept. 20.