ROCHESTER, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team lost on the road to Empire 8 foe, Nazareth College, 1-3 on Wednesday evening as every set was decided by less than five points.
 
"I'm exceptionally disappointed in the lack of execution we had tonight in regards to following simple instructions," Head Coach Dakota Pruiss said. "Nazareth has a championship culture as they have been in the E8 finals for at least the last four years. Quite simply, we cannot expect to face a team like that unless we are prepared to follow the plan our staff created. That being said, we played a tough match with four close sets."
 
The Saxons (2-2, 1-2 Empire 8) lost the first set, 25-27, won the second, 25-22 and lost the third and fourth sets, 24-26 and 21-25, respectively. The fourth set was the largest deficit of the evening for either team, having no set with a more than a five-point difference.
 
First-year Honor Edmands (Reno, NV/Reno) led the way for Alfred with 13.0 points on 10 kills and three service aces. Sophomore Rylee Russin (Broomfield, CO/Broomfield) followed with 11.5 points on 10 kills as well and also one ace and one block assist. Senior Sarah Raeman (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) rounded out the top scorers list for the Saxons with 11.0 points from 11 kills.
 
First-year Fiona McNeil (Fayetteville, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) led the way at the net with 6.0 points from four total blocks, two solo and two assisted while getting two aces and one kill. Defensively, sophomore Darian Ortiz (Santa Fe, NM/St. Michael's) and first-year Jamie Chun (Hilo, HI/Hilo) had nearly 50 out of AU's 92 digs between the two of them. Ortiz stopped 24 attacks while Chun stopped 23. Amanda Burns (Pine Bush, NY/Pine Bush) and Kailee Vanderlinden (Draper, UT/Riverton) both had 13 digs on the evening as well. Burns led the Saxons in set assists with 20.
 
"I'm proud of the resiliency we had. I think Jamie [Chun] and Darian [Ortiz] led us in that regard with their defensive efforts. I was also proud of Corinne Ferguson (Chesapeake, OH/Chesapeake), Julia Fanning (Wallkill, NY/Wallkill Senior), and Erin Clabby (Manasquan, NJ/Wall) coming off the bench for us to make huge runs. We hope to see Nazareth again in playoffs," Coach Pruiss said.
 
Edmands and Ortiz tied for a team-high in aces with three each.
 
The first set never saw more than a four-point lead for either team as it was a back-and-forth battle with Nazareth holding a 17-13 lead. AU responded with an 8-3 run, taking the 21-20 lead. Naz tacked two more on the board to retake the advantage, 22-21, right before kills from Raeman and Edmands and a Chun service ace gave the 24-22 lead before a Nazareth timeout. The Golden Flyers cleared the first set with a 5-1 run as the Saxons were the first team to 25.
 
The second set started with the same tagline of a back-and-forth battle until AU molded a 6-1 run to have a five-point lead, 12-7. Edmands led the run with one kill and two, consecutive aces while Ortiz added an ace and Burns earned a kill. Moments later, the Saxons would take a seven-point lead, 18-11, with another scoring run that mostly saw Nazareth errors. The Golden Flyers pushed back to tie the second set at 20 before the Saxons closed it with a 5-2 run, spearheaded by two Russin kills and an Edmands kill.
 
Both the third and fourth sets were more one-sided on the starts as Nazareth once led 20-8. The Saxons fought back by mounting a 16-4 assault before the host took it, 26-24. Nazareth began the fourth set with a 13-4 run for the largest lead in the set. Once again, AU battled back to be down by two, 21-23 before a kill and ace claimed the match for Nazareth.
 
The Saxons will next host St. John Fisher College on Sunday, March 28 at 2:00pm in Empire 8 action and again at 4:00pm in non-conference action.