Williamsport, Pa. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland volleyball team opened up action Friday night at the 21st Annual Lycoming College Warrior Tip-Off Classic with a pair of sweeps. The Seahawks posted 3-0 victories over Misericordia University and host Lycoming.

First-year head coach Jeremey Sands stated, "I'm really proud of the team, we got better every single set and learned how to minimize our errors. Autumn Fisher had a strong night in both matches."

The Seahawks (7-5) faced a tough battle with Misericordia (9-9), tallying set wins of 25-21, 28-26, 25-17. The first two sets featured 22 tied scores and eight lead changes. St. Mary's never trailed in the third set as they opened up with a 3-0 run and the Cougars only managed a tied score of 5-5 before the Seahawks flew off with the match.

Junior captain Autumn Fisher (Hagerstown, Md./North Hagerstown) and first-year Brigid Morris (Bethesda, Md./Walter Johnson) paced the team in the Misericordia win with nine kills each while junior middle hitters Mandy Goodspeed (Columbia, Md./Atholton) and Karlee Vaillant (Arnold, Md./Broadneck) contributed six kills apiece. Goodspeed also added three total blocks (2 BS, 1 BA).

On the defensive side of the ball, sophomore libero Carissa Hill (Lanham, Md./Pallotti) came up with a match-best 12 digs. Sophomore Mimi Graf (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) and junior setter Grace Chao (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial) combined for 24 assists – 14 and 10, respectively. As a team, St. Mary's totaled 13 service aces as Fisher and Morris each had three.

The loss snapped an eight-match win streak for Misericordia who were led by junior outside hitter Meghan Stack's (Douglassville, Pa./Daniel Boone) 11 kills and six digs.

St. Mary's picked up set triumphs of 25-22, 25-17, 25-22 against host Lycoming (11-8) and cut the Warriors' win streak short at two. As a team, the Seahawks notched 50 kills and a season-best .380 hitting percentage.

Goodspeed was the offensive leader in this match with 11 kills and season-best five block assists while Graf and Morris each recorded nine kills. Morris added three block assists as well while Fisher came in with nine digs and seven kills. Graf and Chao joined forces for 35 assists – 20 and 15, respectively.

St. Mary's will wrap up its month-long road trip as well as action at the Lycoming Classic tomorrow morning (September 27). The Seahawks will take on Montclair State University (13-4) first at 10:00 a.m. before facing Penn College (6-7) at 12:00 p.m.

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