BRISTOL, RI – The Alfred University women's volleyball team finished its weekend tournament at the Roger Williams University Invitational with a pair of losses against strong opponents, Trine University and Montclair State University on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Saxons (0-4, 0-0 Empire 8) loss to Trine in four sets while Montclair swept them in three. Alfred University posted scores of 11-25, 10-25, 25-20 and 16-25 in the morning-opener while continuing to post close set scores of 28-30, 21-25 and 16-25 in the nightcap.
 
 "Day Two showed exactly what we referenced in yesterday's summary. We started off unsure of our ability to play at this level and then proved to ourselves the ability to compete," Head Coach Dakota Pruiss said. "The next step is to reduce our own errors and clean up our side of the net. Amanda [Burns] and Amber [Smith] did just that for us today. Their performances were where our coaching staff wanted them to be and it was nice to see that steady of a performance for an entire day. I also want to give credit to Alex [Taylor] and Rosie [Peckham] who came out for their first time this season today and made great contributions to our side of the net."
 
Junior Amber Smith (Penfield, NY/Webster Schroeder) pulled a 180 and hit double-digit kills in both contests on Saturday. She set her season-high at 15 kills as she only had five errors on 36 attempts for yet, another season-high hitting percentage of .278 and added five digs, defensively against Trine. Smith supplemented her day with 14 kills (.130 percentage) and three digs in the later match. Sophomore Amanda Burns (Pine Bush, NY/Pine Bush) had quite the day as well as she set her Alfred University career-high mark with 31 set assists in the morning match. She almost neared it against Montclair with another 30. Burns bolstered her two-match stats with three aces, eight digs and one solo block. She finished the day with 8.0 points as she tacked on four kills and only had one error.
 
In terms of the Saxons who saw their first season action on Saturday, junior Rosemary Peckham (Odessa, NY/Odessa-Montour) got her first collegiate kill against Trine while sophomore Alex Taylor (Rancho Cucamonga, CA/Los Osos) had six digs against Montclair State.
 
First-year Samara-Jade Mok (Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany/Ramstein) played in three sets in both matches with near-matching statistics. Mok totaled 6.0 points from kills against Trine with one dig. She later mirrored that against Montclair State with the only difference being that against Trine, she hit a .200 while posting a .385 in the closing match.
 
Lone senior Elisabeth Estep (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads) had quite the outing, defensively. She led the Saxons in total digs with 28 although junior Mikala McCartney (Buffalo, NY/St. Mary's) had the highest amount of the day with 17 in one match. Estep had 16 against Trine while McCartney had one more against Montclair. The senior totaled 12 against Montclair while McCartney had four in the morning match.
 
Estep and Burns both had multiple aces against Montclair State with three and two, respectively.
 
The Saxons will prep for next weekend as they head to New Paltz, NY for a two-day tournament at SUNY New Paltz on Friday, September 7 and Saturday, September 8. Alfred University will play against New Paltz at 3PM and then Hamilton College at 7PM on Friday. On Saturday, the Saxons face Mount Saint Mary College (NY) at 12PM and St. Lawrence University at 2PM.