ONEONTA, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team earned a win in a close tri-match at SUNY Oneonta on Saturday evening, defeating the Red Dragons in three sets while falling to Vassar College in three just prior.
 
The Saxons (7-9, 0-2 Empire 8) opened the day with a loss to Vassar, 25-19, 25-22 and 25-14 before topping the Red Dragons 25-18, 25-21, 25-20 in the nightcap. Saturday's win was the first time the Saxons defeated Oneonta since 2003.
 
Amanda Burns (Pine Bush, NY/Pine Bush) led the Saxons in the first match as she recorded 21 set assists and 10 digs, both being team-highs. Sarah Raeman (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) had 9.0 points for AU with eight kills and one ace.
 
"We are very encouraged by our day today," Head Coach Dakota Pruiss said. "We played two very tight sets with Vassar College who is perennially a top team in the NY region. Unfortunately we weren't able to contain one of their big hitters for as much of the match as we wanted, but the fact that we competed gave us some great learning lessons for next week."
 
In the closing match of the day, the Saxons were once again led by the duo of Burns and Raeman. Burns had 25 assists out of the team's 29. Raeman had a match-high 14.0 points off of 12 kills and two aces. She hit a .346 as she only had three errors on 26 attacks. Darian Ortiz (Santa Fe, NM/St. Michael's) had a match-high 14 digs while contributing two aces and a kill. Jamie Chun (Hilo, HI/Hilo) also had double-digit digs as she stopped 11 attacks from finding the floor.
 
Rylee Russin (Broomfield, CO/Broomfield) and Honor Edmands (Reno, NV/Reno) both had 7.5 points as Russin had seven kills and a block assist and Edmands had six kills, one solo block and was the other side of the assisted block with Russin.
 
"The second match against SUNY Oneonta was what we came here to do. I am very pleased with how our team kept their poise during tight scores throughout the match while producing a clean looking offense," Coach Pruiss said. "I think Amanda [Burns] was able to make some great changes to what we are trying to run offensively and it resulted in success."
 
The Saxons will next have a string of solo matches in Empire 8 action as they will travel to St. John Fisher College on Friday, October 8 for a 6:00pm first serve.