Newburgh, N.Y. – For the second straight season, the Mount Saint Mary College Women's Volleyball team advanced to the semifinal round of the conference tournament by eliminating Maritime in the Opening Round. Behind 11 kills from senior Kayla Kurka (Islip, N.Y.) and 39 assists from Kristen Maddock (Medford, N.Y.), the Knights swept the Privateers by scores of 25-16, 25-18, 25-12 on Tuesday night.
 
The match was tied just once on Tuesday, at 1-1 in the second set, and Mount Saint Mary never trailed in the contest in advancing to the semifinal round. The Knights hit an efficient .319 in the contest and had nine different players record at least one kill.
 
Kurka led all players in the match with 11 winners for Mount Saint Mary, hitting .368 on the evening. She added a block assist, a service ace and a pair of digs in the win. Freshman Jennifer Hanley (Sayville, N.Y.), who was named the league's Rookie of the Week on Tuesday, joined Kurka in double-figures in kills with 10 on the night. She hit a blistering .571 for the Knights, committing just two errors in 14 attacks.
 
Sophomore Megan Williams (Glenmont, N.Y.) closed out a solid match with eight kills and a .533 hitting percentage. Williams did not commit an attack error in 5 attempts and added a block and a dig. Angelia Cirigliano (Newburgh, N.Y.) added six winners and Elizabeth Lavin (Hicksville, N.Y.) chipped in with five kills.
 
Maddock matched her career-high with 39 assists in the match and joined Kaitlin O'Brien (Staten Island, N.Y.) with three service aces on Tuesday. O'Brien closed out the night with five digs for Mount Saint Mary, with Maddock lifting four for the Knights.
 
Senior Jennifer Gries (Hicksville, N.Y.) finished the night with a team-high eight digs, extending her new program record to 1,501 heading into Thursday's match at Sage. Classmate Maribeth Powers (Yorktown, N.Y.) rounded out the night with six digs.
 
Maritime was led by seven kills from Carly Lombardo and 14 assists from Erika Bailey. Catherine Pfundstein led all players in the match with 10 digs.
 
For the match, Mount Saint Mary held the advantage in kills 45-19 and service aces 8-3. The Knights also finished with a slim 2-1 edge in total team blocks on the night.
 
Tuesday's win pushes Mount Saint Mary to 16-18 overall on the season. The Knights will travel to Sage on Thursday with first serve scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

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