St. Mary's City, Md. – "Another epic St. Mary's and Christopher Newport battle." That's how St. Mary's College of Maryland volleyball head coach Jeremy Sands described Sunday's match with No. 4 Christopher Newport University. St. Mary's rallied from a 2-1 deficit and forced a decisive fifth set but CNU outlasted the Seahawks for the 3-2 Capital Athletic Conference victory.

Sands continued, "We came out fast tonight and took it to them early but I knew the Captains would turn on the gas quickly. They came back at us strong and our team responded like warriors. It was anyone's game going into the fifth set, unfortunately, the Captains gained some momentum at the end to take the match. I'm proud of how we played tonight and we'll be back in the gym tomorrow to get even better. Alli, Karlee, Mandy, and Autumn all played well on the net while Mimi paced the offense and Carissa and Marissa secured the defense."

The fifth set was neck-in-neck from start to finish. Christopher Newport (22-2, 6-0 CAC) owned a 6-5 lead following a kill by junior outside hitter Briana Sutton (Williamsburg, Va./Jamestown). St. Mary's claimed its first advantage of the game at 7-6 on a kill by senior middle hitter Karlee Vaillant (Arnold, Md./Broadneck) and a Captain ball handling error.

St. Mary's (13-8, 3-2 CAC) stayed in front of the Captains until a pair of Seahawk attack errors sandwiched back-to-back kills by senior setter Rachel Conway (Fairfax, Va./W.T. Woodson) and CNU regained a 14-11 advantage. The Seahawks staved off one match point on a kill by senior middle blocker Mandy Goodspeed (Columbia, Md./Atholton) before an SMCM service error sealed the 15-12 win for the Captains.

Three Seahawks finished the match with double-digit kills. Junior outside hitter Alli Graf (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) paced the offense with 14 kills while Goodspeed added 13 and senior outside hitter Autumn Fisher (Hagerstown, Md./North Hagerstown) contributed 10. Junior Mimi Graf (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) ran the offense like a well-oiled machine with a season-best 33 assists.

St. Mary's never trailed in the first set and won 25-19, leading by as many as eight twice throughout the game. Goodspeed, M. Graf, and A. Graf all had four kills in the first set while M. Graf tallied seven assists and four digs as well. Vaillant notched four total blocks (1 BS, 3 BA).

The second and third sets went to Christopher Newport as Sutton totaled 11 kills between the two games, including eight in the second to lead the Captains to a 25-13 win. CNU held on for a 25-21 win in the third as the Seahawks used an 11-5 run to turnaround a 19-10 deficit and close the gap to 24-21. The Captains sealed the third set win on a block by senior middle blocker Ashley Rock (Arlington, Va./Yorktown) and junior outside hitter Maddie McCann (Mathews, Va./Mathews).

St. Mary's responded with a 25-21 victory in the fourth game, which featured 12 tied scores and five lead changes. The Seahawks staked a lead for good at 18-16 following a kill by A. Graf and back-to-back CNU attack errors.

On the defensive side of the ball, M. Graf led the way with 20 digs to complete her ninth double-double of the season. A. Graf and junior libero Carissa Hill (Lanham, Md./St. Vincent Pallotti) weren't far behind with strong defensive play, connecting on 18 and 17 digs, respectively. Goodspeed (2 BS, 1 BA) and M. Graf (3 BA) each finished the match with three total blocks.

Sutton, the 2013 CAC Player and Rookie of the Year, collected a match-best 19 kills while Conway, the reigning CAC Player of the Year, ran an efficient offense with 54 assists. Junior defensive specialist Rachel Close (Mathews, Va./Mathews) commanded the defense with a match-high 21 digs while Sutton recorded a double-double with 17 digs. Rock contributed six total blocks (1 BS, 5 BA) at the net.

The Seahawks will look to get back on track on Wednesday, October 21 when St. Mary's travels to Fredericksburg, Virginia to face the University of Mary Washington at 7:00 p.m.

Facebook: StMarysAthletics

Twitter: @smcseahawks, @SMCMVB, #HawksFlyTogether

Instagram: @smcseahawks