BUFFALO, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team dropped an Empire 8 match and a non-conference contest on Saturday at Medaille University, falling in five sets to E8 foe, Medaille and in three sets to Alfred State College.
 
The Saxons 3-8 (0-2 Empire 8) fell in Empire 8 action to the Mavericks 19-25, 16-25, 25-19, 26-24, 12-15 before losing in three to the Pioneers, 10-25, 18-25, 9-25.
 
Darian Ortiz (Santa Fe, NM/St. Michael's) surpassed the 1,000 digs mark in the nightcap match as she now has 1,003 collegiate career digs. She had 18 against Medaille and seven against A-State. In the match with the Mavericks, she totaled a new collegiate career-high of 42 set assists and added 2.0 points from a kill and an ace.
 
Match One
Two Saxons had over 20 points in the first match of the day on Saturday. Jamie Chun (Hilo, HI/Hilo) had 24.0 points from 22 kills and two aces while Casey Grange (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) added 23.0 points from 22 kills and one ace. Both also had double-digit digs with Grange having 18 and Chun with 15.
 
Anjoeline Armstrong (Simi Valley, CA/Bishop Alemany) had a match-high 30 digs while adding an ace and a kill and two set assists. Kristin Finley (Kenyon, MN/Kenyon-Wanamingo) had a match-high five block assists with Fiona McNeil (Fayetteville, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) had four block assists to supplement her six kills.
 
After dropping the first two sets and facing a 19-18 Medaille advantage, the Saxons went on a scoring tear, going 7-0 with all seven points being scored due to the efforts of AU's players. Chun had three of her kills in the scoring spree while Grange added one and Jade K Wolfer (Nunda, NY/Keshequa) had two of her team-high five aces in the run as well to win the set.
 
In the fourth set, AU held a 22-16 lead but the Mavericks made a mad-dash to close the lead, going on an 8-0 run, making it a 24-22, match-point advantage for the hosts. The Saxons forced a fifth set tie-break after two errors by the Mavs, a Chun ace and a Grange kill for the 26^th point of the set.
 
Despite the three-point loss in the fifth and deciding set, Medaille held the lead the entire set with the scored tied once at 4-4.
 
Match Two
Chun led the Saxons in the second match of the day with 7.0 points from six kills and an ace. Armstrong had 20 digs and Ortiz had 10 set assists as the stat leaders for Alfred University.
 
The Saxons will return home to the Terry S. Galanis Family Arena on Wednesday, October 5 for a 6:00pm first serve when they host the Soaring Eagles of Elmira College in Empire 8 action.