ONEONTA, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team opened its Empire 8 schedule with an unfortunate, three-set loss at Hartwick College on Friday night.
 
The Saxons (6-12, 0-1 Empire 8) were defeated with set scores of 21-25, 19-25, 21-25.
 
AU was led by Amber Smith (Penfield, NY/Webster Schroeder) with 13 kills of 29 attacks with no errors for a season-high .448 hitting percentage. She tacked on two block assists for a total of 14.0 points while adding eight digs and one assist. First-year Darian Ortiz (Santa Fe, NM/St. Michael's) led with 14 digs while senior Sarah Baty (Portola, CA/Portola) had nine set assists.
 
As a whole, the Saxons kept their attack errors low with only nine on their 96 attempts while Hartwick totaled 21 on their 114 attempts. "Hartwick's two outside hitters put up some amazing numbers," Head Coach Dakota Pruiss said. "Amber [Smith] did one heck of a job offensively tonight but we couldn't get anyone else doing enough to help her out from a scoring perspective."
 
AU held a 5-3 lead in the first set before Hartwick went on a 9-2 run to take a 12-7 lead. The Saxons responded later on with to make it an 18-24 match. They came back within three, 21-24 after two Hawks' attack errors and an ace from Amanda Burns (Pine Bush, NY/Pine Bush).
 
Alfred University held its only lead in the second set when they scored the first point, gave up the next to Hartwick and recorded their second point to go 2-1 to open up play. Hartwick went on a 5-1 run to take their first lead of the set as they never gave it up or allowed it to be tied.
 
The Saxons caught fire early in the third set as Hartwick got an early, 2-0 lead. They went on a 7-2 run to take the lead, 7-4. The Hawks retook the lead, 9-8 a couple of volleys later before a solo block from Lainey Arneson (Yorktown, VA/Tabb) and two aces from Ortiz gave them the 11-9 advantage over Hartwick.
 
The lead was taken by Hartwick with a 7-2 run of their own to make it a 16-13 hosts' advantage. The Saxons stole it back just moments later by tying it up with three, unanswered points and then another three compared to two points for Hartwick to make it a 19-18 Saxon set.
 
The Hawks closed out the set and the match with another 7-2 run to pick up the conference win.
 
The Saxons will next travel to Elmira College on Saturday, September 28 for a 2 p.m. Empire 8 match.