SaxonTV YouTube Recap | Empire 8 Play of the Week

ALBANY, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team split a pair of Empire 8 Conference matches on Saturday morning with a win over Sage Colleges and a loss to St. John Fisher College.

The Saxons (2-16, 2-3 Empire 8) defeated the host institution, Sage Colleges in three sets while falling in three to Fisher. Alfred University topped the Gators with set scores of 25-18, 25-17 and 28-26. In the nightcap, the Cardinals defeated AU 25-18, 26-24 and 25-15.

"I'm happy about the split today. We came here to do what we wanted and that Sage win is going to put us in a good position to claim either the third or fourth spot in the Empire 8 Tournament," Head Coach Dakota 'Dak' Pruiss said. "I don't think we played as cleanly as we would have liked against Sage but what we did do was to capitalize on their errors and minimize ours."

Alfred University was led by junior Amber Smith (Penfield, NY/Webster Schroeder) with 33.0 points on the day. She had 22.5 points in the morning match from 20 kills, one solo block and three assisted. She also had five digs in the match. Senior Elisabeth Estep (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads) followed with 13.5 points against Sage from 10 kills, a match-high three aces and one block assist. She had a total of 16.5 points on Saturday. Estep recorded the Saxons' only double-double of the day as she also had 17 digs in the first match.

Junior Sarah Huzyk (North Chili, NY/Chili-Churchville) led Alfred University, defensively, as she totaled 37 digs on the day with a high of 23 against Sage. Sophomore Amanda Burns (Pine Bush, NY/Pine Bush) recorded 36 set assists against the Gators and 21 against the Cardinals. First-years Karina Morling (Canisteo, NY/Canisteo-Greenwood) and Lainey Arneson (Yorktown, VA/Tabb) put up good numbers at the net as Morling had one solo block and five assisted while Arneson had two solos and one assist.

AU got off to an early 7-0 lead in the third set against Sage with looks of closing out the match quickly. The Gators, however, were not going without a fight as they battled back with an 11-5 run to bring it within one, 12-11 in favor of the Saxons. Sage managed to take the lead, 22-21 after a kill and a Saxon attacking error.

Estep posted two kills while sophomore Sarah Raeman (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) recorded an ace to make it 24-23 with just one point left to take the set, and the match. Both Sage and Alfred University created 2-0 runs against each other to make it 26-25 in favor of the purple and gold. The Gators were awarded one more point to make it 26-all after a Saxon error but after a Smith kill and a Burns ace, the match, and the Empire 8 win went to the Saxons.

Alfred University will next take on The College at Brockport on Friday, October 12 at 7PM during the Rochester Institute of Technology Invitational. Then, they face RIT Saturday morning at 11AM and Elmira College at 1PM. The match against Elmira is non-conference.