NEW PALTZ, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team dropped a pair of nail-biters on the final day of the SUNY New Paltz Invitational on Saturday.
 
Both matches were decided in four sets with the Saxons (2-5, 0-0 Empire 8) and both matches saw AU win the first sets, pretty handily. The set score for the morning match against the host Hawks read 25-15, 14-25, 23-25 and 20-25, showcasing the close third and fourth sets while the later match against the Knights of Mount Saint Mary College (NY) had even closer third and fourth sets, 25-18, 16-25, 23-25 and 23-25.
 
"I am disappointed in the result of our match against New Paltz, but extremely proud of how we played," Head Coach Dakota Pruiss said. "Our offense was fearless and aggressive which is a style we need to have become our identity. I think we also followed our planned scouting report perfectly and just couldn't capitalize on a team that was bigger than us. I would have to say it was our best played match. Both Sarah Raeman and MyKayla Deyarmin had great performances for us against Mount Saint Mary."
 
Match One
Sarah Raeman (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) led AU in the first match with 12.5 points off of 10 kills, an ace, solo block and an assisted block. She only totaled three errors on 26 attacks for a team-high .269 hitting percentage. Honor Edmands (Reno, NV/Reno) neared double-digit scoring with nine points, all from kills.
 
Defensively, Darian Ortiz (Santa Fe, NM/St. Michael's) stopped 17 attacks from finding floor as she led the Saxons in digs, followed closely by Anjoeline Armstrong (Simi Valley, CA/Bishop Alemany) and her 13 digs. Ortiz had two aces on the day as well. Leading in aces was Amanda Burns (Pine Bush, NY/Pine Bush) who had three of the team's eight as she also led the Saxons in set assists with 29.
 
The first set started off with each team exchanging serves and points before AU went on a scoring tear, putting together an 11-2 run, highlighted by two Edmands kills and two of Burns' aces, giving them the 18-8 lead. A kill from Jamie Chun (Hilo, HI/Hilo) for the 22^nd point and an ace from Grace DeWitte (Webster, NY/Webster-Schroeder) capped off another small scoring spree, giving the Saxons a 23-11 advantage before the Hawks pushed back to 15 points. Their run was halted as Kayle Hatfield (Descanso, CA/Granite Hills) scored the set-deciding kill off a Burns assist.
 
The third set gained Saxon favor 6-4 early and AU refused to yield the lead, exchanging punches with New Paltz back-and-forth until it was 16-15 Saxons. AUVB tacked on another four points to make it 20-15 with hopes of claiming their second set of the match before New Paltz took the match lead, 2-1 with a 10-3 run.
 
Match Two
Raeman led AU's scoring efforts again with 15 points, all from kills as she only had four errors on 28 attempts for a season-high .393 hitting percentage. She was immediately followed by Chun and her double-double efforts of 10.5 points and 17 digs. Five of her points came from a new collegiate career-high mark in aces while she added another half a point from a block assist. MyKayla Deyarmin (Smethport, PA/Smethport Area) neared double-digits with seven kills.
 
Joining Chun in double-figure digs was match-leader Ortiz with 22 and Burns with a season-high 12. Burns recorded a double-double as she had 31 assists to go along with her digs.
 
The Saxons will next look toward another weekend tournament as they head to Buffalo State College on Friday, September 17 to take on Wells College at 7:30pm.