ERIE, PA -- The Alfred University women's volleyball team split their matches on the second day of the Penn State Behrend Invitational on Saturday, falling to Thiel College and defeating the hosts in the final match of the day.

The Saxons (5-1, 0-0 Empire 8) won the first two sets against the Tomcats (5-0, 0-0 PAC), 25-21 and 25-16 before Thiel won the following three, 25-17, 25-19 and 15-12. AU then defeated the Lions (2-6, 0-0 AMCC) in four sets, 25-14, 22-25, 26-24, 25-15 to close out Saturday. "Losing to Thiel was tough but finishing the evening with the win against the home team, really show a lot of mental toughness by our team," Head Coach Mike Honeycutt said. "We did a great job of making important adjustments and playing well through multiple lineup changes. Overall this was a very successful weekend for us. We are looking forward to a two-week break to rest and heal multiple players."

Despite the loss in the first match of the day, Taylor Malone (Horseheads, NY/Horsheads) led the match in points with 19.0 with a match-high 17 kills and added two aces. Carleigh Santavy (Commerce, MI/Walled Lake Northern) followed in match points with 17.5 from 17 kills and one block assist. Santavy had a double-double with 10 digs. Jamie Chun (Hilo, HI/Hilo) led the match in digs with 21. She had one point from an ace. Catherina Krause (Pflugerville, TX/Hendrickson) moved into the role of setter to compile 28 assists, leading AU.

In the second match against Penn State Behrend, Malone added another 19.0-point performance to lead the match. All of her points were from kills as she hit a .273 off of 44 total attacks with seven errors. She had a double-double by adding 16 digs, following Chun and her 18 digs. Chun had a match-high five service aces. Jessica Lucille Ramirez (Riverside, CA/Hillcrest) had a match-high 25 set assists while adding a kill (from a long, one-armed dig save that found the back right corner) and an ace. Jordan Gilbert (Barrington, NH/Coe-Brown Northwood Academy) followed with 14 set assists, a kill and an ace as well.

The Saxons will now take a two-week hiatus before returning to competition on Wednesday, September 25 for a 7:00pm home match, hosting University of Pittsburgh at Bradford inside of the Terry S. Galanis Family Arena.