Empire 8 Plays of the Week | Saxon Highlights

LATROBE, PA – The Alfred University women's volleyball team took the first match of the 2019 season in five sets against Allegheny College and then fell to hosts, St. Vincent College in four sets on Friday evening.
 
The Saxons (1-1, 0-0 Empire 8) and their Head Coach, Dakota Pruiss saw both strong leadership from veteran players while also seeing the incoming players make impacts across the board. "Elated with our performance today. Amber [Smith] led the team in performance and character throughout some very tough transition volleyball," Coach 'Dak' Pruiss said. "I think we played the cleanest transition I've seen out of our program ever. I also need to give credit to our entire incoming class. All really stepped up and brought the fight today."
 
Match One:
Alfred University – 3 | Allegheny College – 2
AU Set Scores: 25-21, 22-25, 15-25, 25-20, 15-12
 
The beginning of the match didn't see Alfred or Allegheny gain much ground in terms of the scoreboard differential until the Saxons tied the set at 4-4 to begin an 11-4 run to give them a 14-8 lead.
 
Allegheny attempted a comeback with three, unanswered points but the Saxons piled on their lead with 7-3 run, keeping the lead out of reach, 21-14. The Gators managed to bring the set back within three points, 21-24 but a kill from Kayle Hatfield (Descanso, CA/Granite Hills) sealed the deal for the first set win.
 
AU began the second set with a scoring spree that ended with a 7-1 lead. The Gators were aggressive in response with a 10-3 run, tying the match and taking the lead, 11-10. Both teams exchanged rallies with neither gaining more than a three-point lead until Allegheny took the set-winning point, 25-22.
 
The fourth set saw a similar start as the second set with the Saxons getting out to an early, 5-0 lead before the Gators responded with five, unanswered of their own. The Saxons pulled away with a 9-2 run in the middle of the set to earn a 15-8 lead. Rylee Russin (Broomfield, CO/Broomfield) and Meg Maddalena (Portola, CA/Portola) combined for their own run later in the set, going 5-0 to give the Saxons a 21-12 lead as Russin had a kill and an ace, then Maddalena had two kills with one assist from Sarah Baty (Portola, CA/Portola).
 
Amber Smith (Penfield, NY/Webster Schroeder) had two kills with assists from Baty and Julia Fanning (Wallkill, NY/Wallkill Senior) before the set-winning point was scored off a bad set from an Allegheny player.
 
The fifth set looked to be in the hands of Allegheny as they held an 11-8 advantage over the Saxons. The Saxons went on a 7-1 run with three kills from Smith and four attack errors from the Gators.
 
The Saxons were led by Smith's 28.5 points as she led the team in kills with 24, aces with three and added a block solo and a block assist. She recorded a double-double as she added 10 digs for the second most on the team behind Sarah Huzyk (North Chili, NY/Churchville-Chili) and her 13 digs.
 
Baty had 23 set assists while Fanning followed with 19 in the match. Katie Geruso (Queensbury, NY/Queensbury) had a team-high two solo blocks.
 
Following Smith in points against Allegheny was Hatfield with 8.0 off of seven kills and one solo block. Smith, Hatfield and Sarah Raeman (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) all had hitting percentages over .230 (out of players with 10 or more total attacks). Raeman had six kills and tacked on a block assist for 6.5 points.
 
Match Two:
Alfred University – 1 | St. Vincent College - 3
AU Set Scores: 21-25, 17-25, 26-24, 23-25
 
In the nightcap that started around 9:30 p.m., it was the Saxons that fell behind after the first set and it was a close one as the first, third and fourth sets all proved to be possible Saxon wins, altering the outcome of the match.
 
Despite falling in the first set, Alfred University started the match with the lead as high as 6-5. St. Vincent responded with a 5-1 run that put AU down, 10-7. The Saxons, behind a Bearcat service error and a Smith kill (Baty assist), brought it back within one, making it a 10-9 score in favor of the host. Alfred University would go on to tie the score two more times in the set before St. Vincent closed out with the 25-21, one-set early lead.
 
After the Saxons fell in the second set, 17-25, they rebounded and forced a fourth set to be played after winning the third set with extra points, 26-24. Both the Saxons and Bearcats defined going hit-for-hit in terms of scoring to start the match as neither team gained the upper hand, keeping the score relatively tight until both were about to break into the teens for points.
 
With the score at 12-11, in favor of the host St. Vincent College, built a lead off of an 8-3 run, led by attack errors from the Bearcats and back-to-back kills from Hatfield in which both were assisted by Fanning. Both Lainey Arneson (Yorktown, VA/Tabb) and Smith had kills that were both assisted by Baty to close out the run, making it 19-15 in favor of the purple & gold.
 
After an attack error and a service error from the home team, AU closed the set out with nothing but kills as Baty killed the 22^nd point (Smith assist), Hatfield had the 23^rd (Baty assist) and Smith had the final three kills (Baty assists on all three).
 
In the fourth set, the Saxons were down early after a quick scoring spree from St. Vincent, 12-9. The set was closely contested throughout almost the entirety of it with the Saxons bringing the score to a deficit of one, 21-22 in favor of St. Vincent after a kill from Russin (Baty assist) and a bad set by the home team. The Bearcats and Saxons exchanged points until the hosts got the kill on the 25^th point, winning by two points.
 
The Saxons will next wrap up the St. Vincent College Bearcat Challenge with two more matches with a noon start against Westminster College (PA) and then a 2 p.m. start against Waynesburg University on Saturday.