Scranton, Pa. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Volleyball team opened the 2016 season with a pair of 3-0 losses on Friday at the Scranton Invitational. The Knights dropped a 14-25, 21-25, 7-25 decision to the host Royals to open the event before closing the day with a 21-25, 17-25, 19-25 loss to Penn State Behrend.
 
After falling behind 1-0 in the opener on Friday, the Knights used a 10-3 run in the middle stages of the second set to open a 15-13 advantage. The Mount took advantage of five Scranton miscues over the stretch and got a pair of kills from senior Angelia Cirigliano (Newburgh, N.Y.) to jump in front by two points.
 
The Mount would move in front 17-14 on another Scranton error, before the Royals rebounded to end the set on a 9-3 run to move in front 2-0 in the match. A pair of aces from Morgan Rentzheimer sealed the second set win for the Royals.
 
In the third frame, the Knights fell behind 11-3 and could not recover. The Mount did not record consecutive points in the set and saw the Royals close with 11 of the final 13 points to secure the victory.
 
Mount Saint Mary was led by seven kills and eight digs from senior Rachel Sabatini (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) and received six kills from newcomer Morgan Burke (Ringwood, N.J.), who hit an even .500 in the contest. Senior Kristen Maddock (Patchogue, N.Y.) handed out 19 assists for the Knights and Julimar Figueroa (Dorado, Puerto Rico) chipped in with seven digs.
 
Scranton was paced by nine winners and eight service aces from Rentzheimer and got seven kills each from Catherine Manning and Kate Calabro. Bailey Woods closed the match with 35 assists to go along with five digs.
 
Overall in the match, Scranton held the edge in kills 39-21, service aces 12-0 and total team-blocks 2-0.
 
In the second match of the day, the Mount was held to just a .034 attack percentage, while Penn State Behrend converted at a .230 clip, putting away 36- kills against just 13 attack errors.
 
Junior Megan Williams (Glenmont, N.Y.) paced the Knights with seven kills in the contest, with Nicole Spinelli (Wantagh, N.Y.) also adding seven winners, while hitting .357. Figueroa and Cirigliano each lifted 15 digs in the match, while Maddock assisted on 14 winners. Burke recorded four block assists for the Knights and Sabatini chipped in with two service aces.
 
Penn State Behrend was led by eight kills from Rachel Frye and got 13 assists from Hannah Saunders. A trio of players lifted 11 digs in the match, including Meredith Snyder who put away seven kills and hit .294.
 
At 0-2 overall, Mount Saint Mary will continue play at the Scranton Invitational with two more matches on Saturday. The Knights will tangle with FDU-Florham at 11:30 a.m. and close play against Wentworth at 1:30 p.m.