Women's Volleyball 9/28/2016 12:00:00 AM

St. Mary's Volleyball Comes up Short in CAC Opener

Box Score

For Immediate Release · By Nairem Moran · nmoran@smcm.edu

St. Mary's City, Md. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland volleyball team had several missed opportunities in their first Capital Athletic Conference match of the season Wednesday night. St. Mary's rallied multiple times throughout the match but dropped a tough 3-1 (23-25, 25-19, 23-25, 24-26) decision to their conference rival, Marymount (Va.) University.

Marymount (Va.) 3, St. Mary's (Md.) 1 (23-25, 25-19, 23-25, 24-26)

How It Happened

St. Mary's staked a 23-22 lead following a 4-1 run but a Seahawk service error and back-to-back kills by junior Margaret McAlpin (Brookeville, Md./Good Counsel) gave Marymount the early 1-0 advantage.
The second set was all St. Mary's as the Seahawks built an 11-6 lead and never looked back. Senior captain Alli Graf (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) led the way with five kills as the home team evened up the match at 1-all.
St. Mary's pulled within 24-23 with a 5-1 run in the third set, forcing the Saints to call a timeout. However, senior middle hitter Cailyn Thomas (White Plains, Md./Friendly) put down her fourth kill of the game to seal the win and hand her team a 2-1 lead.
The fourth and final set was another tightly-contested game. St. Mary's lead by as many as 15-9 and its last advantage was 24-23 on a Saint service error but Marymount rallied behind a Seahawk attacking error and a Theresa Buscemi (Weston, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) ace to cap the conference-opening win.

For The Seahawks (12-6, 0-1 CAC)

Graf (19 kills, 14 digs, 3 block assists); Mimi Graf (31 assists, 10 digs, 7 kills, 3 block assists); Meghan Griffiths (21 digs, 2 kills); Marissa Dangler (14 digs).
St. Mary's posted a .138 attack percentage for the match with five service aces and 9.0 team blocks.

For Marymount (12-5, 1-0 CAC)

Thomas (11 kills, 5 block assists, 2 digs); Ashton Walker (10 kills, 4 digs, 4 block assists); Emileigh Rettig (12 digs, 10 kills, 3 service aces, 2 block assists); Christine Tieman (23 assists, 5 digs); Caroline Hanson (21 assists, 20 digs, 6 kills, 3 block assists); Mallory Mitchell (21 digs, 9 kills, 2 assists); Buscemi (20 digs, 4 assists).
The Saints attacked at a .114 clip with seven service aces and 10.0 team blocks.

Notes

Junior Brigid Morris (Bethesda, Md./Walter Johnson) notched nine kills and hit .261 in her first match since her first-year campaign in 2014.
With her 11th double-double of the season, senior setter Mimi Graf (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) is only one shy of her 50th career double-double.

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