ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team played three close sets against St. John Fisher College in Empire 8 action on Friday evening but fell in three sets to the defending E8 Champions.
 
The Saxons (7-10, 0-3 Empire 8) lost with sets scores of 25-21, 25-20 and 25-20. "Fisher is a well-oiled machine, so we knew we would need to play a very clean game tonight," Head Coach Dakota Pruiss said. "While this was our best performance during conference this season, it's hard to acknowledge that with a loss. One thing I told the team was that if we can repeat how we played tonight, the remainder of our conference season looks extremely bright."
 
The Saxons had strong defensive showings from Anjoeline Armstrong (Simi Valley, CA/Bishop Alemany), Darian Ortiz (Santa Fe, NM/St. Michael's) and Amanda Burns (Pine Bush, NY/Pine Bush) all had double-digit digs, including Armstrong's match-high 15 digs. Ortiz had 14 and Burns had 11. Burns also had 22 set assists and three kills on the evening.
 
Sarah Raeman (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) had a team-high 11.0 points from 11 kills while adding eight digs herself. Honor Edmands (Reno, NV/Reno) posted 8.5 points from eight kills and an assisted block. Jamie Chun (Hilo, HI/Hilo) had two aces on the night to go along with her three kills for 5.0 points as well as nine digs.
 
AU began the match with momentum, putting together a 4-1 lead. From that point on, Alfred and Fisher battled as AU never gave the lead up despite the score being tied multiple times until the Cardinals pulled ahead 15-14 late in the opening set. In order to gain the lead, Fisher compiled a 6-0 run to establish a 17-14 lead. AU kept the pressure on, fighting back to a three-point deficit, 24-21 before SJF got the set-claiming kill.
 
The second set started in nearly the same fashion as the Saxons got out to a 12-5 lead. An 11-3 Cardinal run swayed the momentum in favor of the hosts, going up 16-15 in the set. The finisher was another scoring run with St. John Fisher totaling seven out of the set's final 10 points.
 
In what would prove to be the final set of the evening, it was the Cardinals that got out to the early lead, having six-point advantages twice at 12-6 and 13-7 before AU four back to within two, 16-14. The Saxons would however not come within three points of the lead for the remaining of the match.
 
The Saxons will next head to Utica College on Saturday, October 9 for a 3:00pm match start in Empire 8 action.