ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team dropped both of its matches during the Empire 8 Crossover held by the Saxons with Nazareth and Utica Colleges in attendance at the Terry S. Galanis Family Arena Saturday afternoon.
 
The Saxons (3-24, 0-8 Empire 8) managed to win the second set against the Pioneers of Utica College, but fell in four sets with a scoreline of 22-25, 25-17, 18-25 and 20-25. The Golden Flyers of Nazareth posted scores of 25-22, 25-12 and 25-18 to earn the three-set sweep over the hosts and then defeated Utica in the middle match, 25-18, 25-7, 25-23.
 
Alfred University had more points from kills than Utica, 57-44 and more than doubled the aces margin, 11-5 but was dwarfed in total blocks, 3-9. The Saxons were their own worse enemy as they totaled 23 errors against the Pioneers.
 
Senior Chelsea Pietrzykowski (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) led the Saxons in scoring against Utica with 17.5 points. She was 0.5 points away from tying her Saxon career record of 18.0 points set last season in the match against Penn State-Harrisburg. She had 16 kills, one solo block and one assisted block and added two digs.
 
Sophomore Jacquelynn Hicks (Greensville, NY/Greensville) broke her career-best in points for the second time this season as she followed Pietrzykowski with 17.0 points from a match-tying 16 kills and one solo block.
 
Junior Mary Lou Patnaude (Burnt Hills, NY/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake) was 0.5 points away from tying last seasons' best mark of 15 points which was also against Utica College. She finished the evening match with 14.5 points from 10 kills, a match-tying high with four service aces and one assisted block. She also posted 10 digs which was the third highest on the team.
 
Junior Valerie Cardillo (Webster, NY/Webster Schroeder) was the other Saxon to tie the match-high of four aces on her way to a 9.0-point match. Her performance was a career-high for her as well. She added five kills to her aces for the point total as well as assisted on two kills and got under attacks eight times.
 
Sophomore Aubrey Totsline (Fairport, NY/Fairport) had 45 assists, blowing away her previous assists career-high of 37 against Hilbert College of this season. She also added a team second-best in digs with 15.
 
Freshman Elisabeth Estep (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads) tied her career-best of 25 digs. She also set her career assists record at seven.
 
The Saxons will next host Hilbert College in their final home match of the 2015 season where they will honor seniors Pietrzykowski, Brianna Dudick (Somers, NY/Somers) and Kristen Julian (Henrietta, NY/Rush-Henrietta) in pre-match ceremonies on Wednesday, October 28 at 7:00 pm.