ONEONTA, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team fell in three sets to Empire 8 foe, Hartwick College on Friday evening.
 
The Saxons (4-11, 1-5 Empire 8) dropped set scores of 18-25, 13-25, 19-25. The Hawks (14-5, 5-1 Empire 8) are now on a three match win streak with two of those wins being against Empire 8 opponents.
 
Casey Grange (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) led the team with 10.5 points on nine kills, a solo block and a block assist. She tacked on eight digs for second on the team. Anjoeline Armstrong (Simi Valley, CA/Bishop Alemany) had a match-high 14 digs, adding a team-high two aces. Darian Ortiz (Santa Fe, NM/St. Michael's) had a team-high 20 set assists.
 
After staring down a 10-5 Hartwick lead in the first set, AU battled back for an 11-10 lead behind kills from Grange and Fiona McNeil (Fayetteville, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) and errors on the hosts' end. Hartwick responded with multiple scoring runs to close out the set for the early 1-0 match lead. The Hawks took the lead away from the Saxons in the second set as AU had the first point. Hartwick scored the next eight points and never gave the lead up or allowed a tie for the rest of the set and the 2-0 lead. Hartwick held the lead for the entire third set, besides the first point, in order to close out the match.
 
The Saxons remain on the road for the weekend as they will next play Russell Sage College on Saturday, October 15 at 12:00pm. It will be the second meeting of the two teams this year, having defeated the Gators in four sets during the SUNY New Paltz tournament in early September. The two teams will play a third time to close out the season at the Skidmore Invitational during the final weekend of October.