SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – The Alfred University women's volleyball team picked up its first win of the season on Friday evening, defeating Plattsburgh State in three sets during the Skidmore College Invitational.
 
The Saxons (1-3, 0-0 Empire 8) had a close first set but took two strong set wins to close out the evening. AU won, 26-24, 25-19 and 25-18 to present the Cardinals (3-1, 0-0 SUNYAC) their first loss of the year.
 
"It's great to get our first win of the season and doing that via a sweep just shows how hard the team worked this past week on the small things," Head Coach Mike Honeycutt said. "I am so proud of our team. They were selfless, played tough and took care of the ball. That last part, we emphasized in practice this week and executed it well today."
 
Taylor Malone (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads) led the offense with 10.5 points from 10 kills and one block assist. She was followed by Casey Grange (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) with 8.0 points from eight kills. Both hitters bolstered hitting percentages that led the match (out of the individuals that had 10 or more attacks). Grange hit a .318 with only one error on her 22 attacks while Malone hit .241 with only three errors on her 29 attempts.
 
Three Saxons led the defense as they all had double-digit digs. Both Darian Ortiz (Santa Fe, NM/St. Michael's) and Delaney Sims (Bogart, GA/George Walton Academy) had 14 digs while Jamie Chun (Hilo, HI/Hilo) added 10. For the fourth time in a row, Sims also led the match in set assists, totaling 26, having 12 more than any other player on the court.
 
The first set featured five lead changes after the Cardinals had the first lead of the set. Plattsburgh had a 22-20 lead near the end of the set with just one lead change to come. The Saxons got their 21^st and set-tying, 22^nd point with a kill from Grange and an ace from Ortiz. An attack error by Plattsburgh gave AU the lead, 23-22 just before the Cardinals tied it at 23 and then at 24 after a kill from Malone. Back-to-back Carinal errors closed out the set in favor of the purple and gold.
 
AU got out to an early, 9-4 lead after being down, 4-3. Malone had two kills in the scoring spree while Cara Bratthauar (Chambersburg, PA/Chambersburg Area) added one. Sims assisted on all three kills and ended the scoring spree with an ace. AU would continue the set with a consistent four to five-point lead, while at one time, having a seven-point lead at 23-16. Sims got the 25^th point for the Saxons in the second set with a surprise kill that caught the front line and back line off-guard.
 
The third set was all AU, starting off with a seven-point, 8-1 lead that featured kills from Malone, Grange and Sims and another Sims ace. The Saxons built a 10-point lead at 13-3 with more Plattsburgh errors and more AU kills. They hit another 10-point lead near the end of the set, holding a 19-9 advantage over the SUNY school. Plattsburgh fought back to bring the score within five points, 23-18 before an attack error gave the ball back to AU, looking at the match-point, 24-18. Fiona McNeil (Fayetteville, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) closed out the match with a service ace.
 
Friday's win was also the first 3-0 win since October 30, 2021 for the Saxons.
 
The Saxons will next take on two more SUNY schools on Saturday, September 9. They first face SUNY Oneonta at 10:00am and then SUNY Morrisville at 2:00pm.