ALBANY, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team traveled to Russell Sage College on Saturday afternoon and returned to Alfred with a three-set, Empire 8 win over the host Gators.
 
The Saxons (3-4, 2-3 Empire 8) swept the Gators (0-7, 0-5 Empire 8) in three sets with scores of 25-18, 25-16 and 25-23. "I'm happy to have another conference sweep. We played well in regards to our scouting report and executing what we needed to," Head Coach Dakota Pruiss said. "We hit shots that we were focusing on hitting for the last week, and I know that work will pay off in the post season. I think Rylee had a lights-out performance offensively and brought a ton of speed for us. I also was proud of the numbers Raeman and Honor posted."
 
Two AU players hit double-digit scoring as both Rylee Russin (Broomfield, CO/Broomfield) and Honor Edmands (Reno, NV/Reno) both had 11.0 points with both recording 10 kills and one ace. Both Saxons also had excellent hitting averages as Russin hit a .400 with only two errors on 20 attacks and Edmands hit a .333 with three errors on 21 attacks. Sarah Raeman (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) neared double-digit kills and scoring as she scored 9.0 points all from kills. Her and Fiona McNeil (Fayetteville, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) both had attack percentages over .200 as Raeman hit a .217 and McNeil was right on the mark with .200 on Saturday.
 
Defensively, the Saxons recorded 50 digs as nine out of the 10 players in the purple and gold contributed to the stat, led by Kayle Hatfield (Descanso, CA/Granite Hills) with 11. Amanda Burns (Pine Bush, NY/Pine Bush) had 30 set assists to lead the match as she had more just by herself, compared to Russell Sage College's 28 total assists. Darian Ortiz (Santa Fe, NM/St. Michael's) added six of her own assists on the day while also leading the match in aces with four, tying the Gators' team total. Alfred University totaled 11 aces on the day.
 
Sage started the day with a 5-2 lead in the first set before the Gators had not one, not two, but five attack errors in a row to hand the lead to AU, 7-5. Russell Sage would retake the lead with a 6-1 run later on in the set, holding a 14-12 lead over the visiting Saxons. AU responded with kills from Raeman and McNeil along with a Jamie Chun (Hilo, HI/Hilo) service ace to retake the lead, 15-14.
 
The first set would see the score tied up at 16 and 17 but an Alfred 8-1 scoring spree would give the purple and gold the first set win with the run being led by Corinne Ferguson (Chesapeake, OH/Chesapeake) and her two kills along with a kill from Russin and an ace from Burns, scoring the 25^th point.
 
The second set began with both teams exchanging blows as only AU had a lead within the first six points, keeping the set tied, 3-3. Raeman scored three times off of kills in a Saxon 6-1 run to hold a 9-4 lead. Sage pushed back to cut the Saxon lead to 9-7 before another Saxon spree pushed AU back on top, 14-7 with two kills and an ace from Edmands and kills from Russin and Ferguson. Alfred University would close out the set with never allowing a Sage lead.
 
The Saxons would keep a Gator lead from happening only until the Gators took a 5-4 lead in the third set. A short-lived Saxon lead followed, 6-5 before Russell Sage took it back, 9-7. An 8-2 AU run gave the Saxons a 15-11 lead which would be the last lead change of the day as AU, despite a late push from RSC, would go on to earn the second conference sweep of the season.
 
"The tricky thing about a team like Sage is that they control the pace of play in matches," Coach Pruiss said. "Their offense looks very different than ours so it was an adjustment we needed to learn. Fortunately we learned the lesson of controlling the pace of the match without sacrificing a set. We are definitely walking away happy today."
 
The Saxons will next host Elmira College on Saturday, April 10 at 11:00am in Empire 8 action and then again at 1:00pm in non-conference play in the Terry S. Galanis Family Arena to end the regular season.