ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team celebrated the career of its lone senior, Darian Ortiz (Santa Fe, NM/St. Michael's) in pre-match ceremonies on Saturday as the Empire 8 schedule came to an end with a 3-0 loss to Nazareth College.

"Today we celebrated the record-breaking career of Darian. She has grown so much in the last four years as a person all, volleyball athlete and as a leader," Interim Head Coach Mike Honeycutt said. "She is a selfless leader, and that is shown by the fact that, even though she was the returning two time conference Libero of the Year, she stepped in to set after our first weekend. And we didn't skip a beat. Watch out world, because when she sets her mind to do something, it will be spectacular!"

The Saxons (5-13, 2-7 Empire 8) dropped set scores of 13-25, 17-25 and 19-25 in the Terry S. Galanis Family Arena on Saturday. The Golden Flyers (10-15, 6-3 Empire 8) never relinquished the lead during the first set. AU had the 1-0 start in the second set before Naz took control and never gave it up in the rest of the period, despite AU tying the score three times. The Saxons didn't earn their first lead change until Casey Grange (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) drilled a kill off an Ortiz assist in the third set, making it an AU 8-7 set. Naz retook the lead, 10-9 and kept the advantage for the remainder of Saturday's contest.

Grange totaled 11.0 points on 11 kills to lead the scoring efforts. Jamie Chun (Hilo, HI/Hilo) followed with 8.5 points from eight kills and a block assist. Corinne Ferguson (Chesapeake, OH/Chesapeake) added 4.5 points from kills and a block assist while Fiona McNeil (Fayetteville, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) added four kills. Mehlani Lopez (Los Angeles, CA/Sacred Heart) tacked on three kills as well from the front line.

Jade K Wolfer (Nunda, NY/Keshequa) had two service aces while Anjoeline Armstrong (Simi Valley, CA/Bishop Alemany) closed out the scoring efforts with an ace.

Ortiz and Armstrong led the defense with 11 digs while Chun tacked on 10. Ortiz had 27 set assists on the day.

The Saxons will next close out their season with a weekend tournament at Skidmore College on Friday and Saturday, October 28 and 29. AU faces E8 foe, Russell Sage College in non-conference action for the second time of the season on Friday at 8:00pm.