St. Mary's City, Md. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland volleyball team picked up an important Capital Athletic Conference win over Wesley College before falling in four to Messiah College on Saturday afternoon.

It was an action-packed Saturday as St. Mary's (14-10, 4-3 CAC) celebrated its seven seniors – Autumn Fisher (Hagerstown, Md./North Hagerstown), Jennifer Staab (Baltimore, Md./Institute of Notre Dame), Mandy Goodspeed (Columbia, Md./Atholton), Grace Chao (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial), Mollie Johnson (Hagerstown, Md./North Hagerstown), Karlee Vaillant (Arnold, Md./Broadneck), and Emily Scott (Montgomery Village, Md./Covenant Life) – before its match with Messiah and also held its annual Dig Pink Rally.

"I'm proud of all we have accomplished under the fight, spirit, and dedication from these seven seniors. They have been instrumental in the last four years on and off the court. We played as a team while these seven seniors took the court for the last time together against Wesley. I wish them the best of luck in their adventures and will be glad to call them alumnae soon!" expressed head coach Jeremy Sands.

The Seahawks opened up the day with a sweep of Wesley (12-14, 1-6 CAC), dominating the sets with scores of 25-9, 25-23, 25-12. Goodspeed led St. Mary's in the win with 15 kills and a .583 hitting percentage as well as four block assists. Vaillant added 10 kills while Chao dished 27 assists to keep the offense moving. Defensively, Fisher tallied a season-best 14 digs and junior libero Carissa Hill (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) contributed 10.

Sophomore outside hitter Tionne Graves-Brown (Sacramento, Calif./Rosemont) posted a solid all-around match for Wesley with eight kills and 10 digs while junior setter Beth Schlecker (Bear, Del./Delaware Military Academy) notched 21 assists.

Sands added, "Messiah is a very good team and we battled with them the entire match. Our outsides, Alli Graf and Autumn Fisher, played very well at the net to keep the Messiah defense on their toes. It's good to play teams like this down the stretch because it keeps us in tune for playoff time."

Messiah (25-2), who is ranked seventh in the first edition of the NCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic Region Poll, and St. Mary's were neck-in-neck the entire match. The Seahawks battled and forced Messiah to work for its ninth consecutive victory. The Falcons registered sets scores of 26-24, 25-23, 24-26, 25-13 for their fifth four-set win of the season.

Goodspeed continued her hot streak with 13 kills while junior outside hitter Alli Graf (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) collected a team-best 14 kills. A. Graf posted 21 digs to lead the team and record her 11th double-double of the season while Hill racked up 20. Vaillant defended the net well with six total blocks (1 BS, 5 BA), adding five kills and four digs.

Three Falcons notched double-digit kills and junior outside hitter Kristen Douglas (Westminster, Md./Carroll Christian) led the way with 18 while fellow classmate Jane Underman (Finksburg, Md./Carroll Christian) added 17. The offense ran smoothly thanks to junior setter Brooke Gallagher's (Westminster, Md./Francis Scott Key) 53 assists.

The Seahawks currently sits fifth in the conference standings and will travel to York College of Pennsylvania (11-16, 2-4 CAC), who is seventh, on Wednesday, October 28 for a CAC tilt at 7:00 p.m.

Facebook: StMarysAthletics

Twitter: @smcseahawks, @SMCMVB, #HawksFlyTogether

Instagram: @smcseahawks