ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team picked up two, dominant set wins to start Saturday's Empire 8 match with Hartwick College but fell in five from the Terry S. Galanis Family Arena. 
 
The Saxons (9-13, 2-6 Empire 8) got the first set win, 25-17 and then strong-armed the Hawks (17-2, 7-1 Empire 8) in the second set, 25-11 before the visitors cleared the match, 25-20, 25-19, 15-11. 
 
"I think we played tough against a very good Hartwick team tonight," Head Coach Dakota Pruiss said. "There's a reason they are #2 in the conference. We were able to come out and dominate in two sets but then started to have system breakdowns that let Hartwick back into the match. Overall, I was impressed with our offense as we hit at a very nice percentage for the match. Just unfortunate we couldn't pull a win out tonight." 
 
Prior to tonight's match, Alfred University recognized Hartwick's graduating seniors just before celebrating the careers of Amanda Burns (Pine Bush, NY/Pine Bush), Samara-Jade Mok (Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany) and Lucy McCredie (Gloversville, NY/Gloversville). Each of the Saxon seniors recorded a kill on their final home appearance. Burns led the match with 46 assists and added a match-high five aces to go with her kill for 6.0 points. Mok's kill was a snipe to the back row while McCredie had three kills including two set-clinching kills in the first and second sets. 
 
Saturday was the second day in a row where the Saxons did not have a single player hit in the negative percentages as they were led by Jamie Chun (Hilo, HI/Hilo) and her .364 and Sarah Raeman (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) and her .308, Chun with the match-high and Raeman's being tied for third in the match of attackers with 10 or more attempts. Raeman had 16 kills on 39 attempts with only four errors to go along with her three aces and 12 digs, totaling a match-high 19.0 points. Chun had 10 kills on 22 attacks with only two errors and two block assists for 11.0 points.  
 
Rylee Russin (Broomfield, CO/Broomfield) tacked on 10.0 points to round out the Saxon leading scorers. 
 
Darian Ortiz (Santa Fe, NM/St. Michael's) led the defense with 17 digs while Chun had 13 to go with Raeman's 12. Each and every single Saxon that stepped onto the court scored at least one point on Saturday. 
 
The Saxons will next close out the season with a non-conference tri-match at Wilkes University, starting the day with a match against Rutgers-Camden at 1:00 pm on Saturday, October 30.