ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team opened Empire 8 play on Friday evening with a four-set loss to St. John Fisher University from the Terry S. Galanis Family Arena.
 
The Saxons (3-8, 0-1 Empire 8) opened conference action and forced two of the four sets to go into extra points. In the end, AU dropped the E8-opener with set scores of 17-25, 27-29, 26-24 and 19-25. Friday's match was also the first Empire 8 match for the Cardinals (6-8, 1-0 Empire 8).
 
"Outside of a few missed opportunities, we played very well," Head Coach Mike Honeycutt said. "We were two points away from being up two sets to one on the No. 1 team in conference for the past four years. Our play spoke for itself and should put other teams in the conference on notice that Alfred University volleyball is a contender in the E8 this year."
 
Both teams had three players hit double-digit scoring as the Saxons' Taylor Malone (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads) led the match with 25.5 points from a match-high 20 kills and another match-high five service aces. Fiona McNeil (Fayetteville, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) joined with 10.5 points from nine kills and three block assists while hitting a .444 attack percentage with only one error on her 18 attack attempts.. Casey Grange (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) added 10 kills for 10.0 points.
 
Four Saxons had double-digit digs. Darian Ortiz (Santa Fe, NM/St. Michael's) led the way with 13 stops with Malone right behind with 12. Both Delaney Sims (Bogart, GA/George Walton Academy) and Jamie Chun (Hilo, HI/Hilo) both tallied 10 digs each. Sims had 35 set assists and tied McNeil for a match-high three block assists as she had 4.5 points by adding two kills and one ace.
 
The first set was a back-and-forth in the opening, as both teams were tied at 7-7 after a kill from Chun. A four-point run from Fisher gave them an 11-7 lead that wasn't cut to within one point for the rest of the set. The closest was a 16-14 Cardinal lead after a service error. Fisher added four more points to reach 20 first as they would go on to win the first set, 25-17.
 
SJFU got out to an early 4-2 lead and kept the momentum to an 11-7 lead. Alfred went on a 9-3 run that was highlighted by a six-point, unanswered spree to take the lead at 17-14. Malone had two kills and back-to-back aces in the spree along with kills from Grange and Cara Bratthauar (Chambersburg, PA/Chambersburg Area). Fisher tied the match at 17-17 and took the lead at 20-19. The Cardinals built the lead to 22-19 but another offensive push from the Saxons gave them the 23-22 lead after two kills from Malone and one from McNeil. AU was the first to reach 25 points with a 25-24 lead after a Cardinal error. Each team exchanged two-point bumps as AU had a 27-26 advantage but after a service error and two Fisher kills, would take the second set, 29-27.
 
Much as how the entire night was, the third set was also a back-and-forth for the beginning as AU had an 11-9 lead before Fisher took a 14-11 advantage. Each team exchanged small scoring sprees but it was Alfred University that had the last laugh. They faced a 23-20 deficit before a Fisher service mistake gave the ball back to them at 23-21. Jade K Wolfer (Nunda, NY/Keshequa) brought it within one point with a service ace and was followed by a Fisher attack error to tie it at 23-23. Wolfer's next serve was called out of bounds as the Saxons faced a 24-23, set-point and overall match-point situation. Grange tied the set and forced extra points with a kill before Chun got an ace to take a 25-24 lead. Sims and McNeil teamed up for the set-winning block.
 
The final set was once again close up until Fisher took an 18-14 lead. The Saxons were unable to put together two or more points in a row while Fisher did just that to take the conference-opening match.
 
The Saxons will next turn around for a road trip to Rochester, NY to face Empire 8 foe, Nazareth University on Saturday, September 30 for a 1:00pm match start.