CLAREMONT/LA VERNE, CA – The Alfred University women's volleyball team opened their California trip with a pair of losses on Friday, falling to Lewis & Clark College and Occidental College.
 
The Saxons (0-2, 0-0 Empire 8) dropped the season-opener against Lewis & Clark in three sets, 19-25, 22-25 and 14-25. Then, in a separate location, fell to Occidental in four sets, 23-25, 25-12, 18-25 and 19-25.
 
Match One
Alfred University – 0 | Lewis & Clark College – 3
 
Casey Grange (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) led in scoring with 6.5 points from six kills and one block assist. Taylor Malone (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads) followed with 6.0 points, all from kills. Delaney Sims (Bogart, GA/George Walton Academy) recorded a match-high 20 assists while adding 5.0 points from three kills a solo block and two block assists. Darian Ortiz (Santa Fe, NM/St. Michael's) tied for the match-high in digs with 11 and added 3.0 points, all from service aces, breaking the Alfred University school record of 143 career service aces, held jointly by Aubrey Totsline '18 and Heather D'Andrea '18. Ortiz ended the first game with 144 aces.
 
In the close second set, neither team gained a strong advantage until L&C had a 19-15 lead. With kills from Jamie Chun (Hilo, HI/Hilo) and Malone, plus a Pioneer attack error and ball-handling error, the Saxons tied the set at 19-19. Both teams put together three-point runs to make it 22-22 before two attack errors and a bad set ended the set.
 
Match Two
Alfred University – 1 | Occidental College – 3
 
Malone skyrocketed her collegiate career-high in kills in a single match, points in a match and everything else that correlates to those. She totaled 18.0 points from 17 kills on 46 attacks with 16 errors. Malone added a solo block to her efforts.
 
Chun and Sims both had 9.0 points, Chun totaling four kills and four aces with two block assists and added 15 digs. Sims had seven kills and two aces while recording a match-high 32 set assists. Grange added 8.5 points, Fiona McNeil (Fayetteville, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) tacked on 7.0 points and Cara Bratthauar (Chambersburg, PA/Chambersburg Area) chipped in 6.5 points.
 
Ortiz added 19 digs to her day as well as another two service aces, increasing her school record.
 
AU's first set win of the year came off a dominating first 14 points, boasting a lop-sided score of 13-1 to begin the set. The advantage grew to a 14-point lead with the scoreboard reading 17-3 before Occidental woke up. The Tigers scored nine of the final 26 points but would go on to close out the match, winning the third and fourth sets.
 
The Saxons will next close out their California stay with a single match on Saturday, September 2 against Illinois Institute of Technology at 1:30pm (10:30am PST).