Newburgh, N.Y. – The second-seeded Mount Saint Mary College Women's Volleyball team begins play in the 2018 Skyline Conference Championship on Thursday night with a semifinal match against third-seeded St. Joseph's-LI. Live stats and video are available for those who cannot attend the 7:00 p.m. contest at the Kaplan Center.

At A Glance: The Knights won five of their final six regular season matches and enter Thursday's match at 18-13 overall. The Mount have won six straight conference matches to finish the conference slate with an 8-2 record.

Mount Saint Mary features three players with at least 100 kills on the season, led by a team-high 255 from junior Morgan Burke (Ringwood, N.J.), Skyline Conference Player of the Week on September 17, 232 from senior Alex Klesin (Glendale, N.Y.) and 145 from junior Madelyn Barberan (Bedford Hills, N.Y.). Klesin leads the team in kills per set (2.76) and Burke is second (2.45).

Klaire Wall (Point Pleasant, N.J.) leads the team in service aces with 44 through the regular season and is the team leader in digs with 305. Barberan is second on the team in digs with 268 and senior Kim Gries (Hicksville, N.Y.) is third on the team in digs with 198, second on the team in aces with 34, and has handed out a career-high 798 assists and 8.14 per set.

Among the Skyline Conference leaders, Gries paces the league in total assists and is second in helpers per set, while Wall has lifted the fourth most digs in the league. Burke is second in the league in kills and is third in the league in blocks. Klesin is third in the league in kills.

Scouting the Golden Eagles: St. Joseph's-LI is 20-11 overall (8-2 Skyline) after a Skyline quarterfinal win over St. Joseph's-Brooklyn, 25-9, 25-15, 20-25, 25-9.

Jessica Young, voted Skyline Conference Player of the Week on September 24, leads the attack with 220 kills, Kaitlin Williams is second with 218 and Kristen Bohnenblusch is third with 192. Brionna Silva is the assist leader with 523 and Toni Parente is second with 412.

Bohnenbulsch is the aces leader with 55, Danielle Senecal is second with 50 and Amanda Rose is third with 37. Senecal is the conference digs leader with 458 and Bohnenbulsch is second on the team with 267. Young is second in the conference in blocks with 87 and Williams is second on the team with 56.

2018 Matchup: The Knights defeated the Golden Eagles, less than a week ago, in an exciting five set match, 23-25, 25-20, 26-24, 22-25, 15-13. Burke lead the Knights in kills with 15, hitting an efficient .316 in the match. Junior Madelyn Barberan (Fishkill, N.Y.) buried 13 winners and Klesin chipped in 12 kills to lead the Knights' offensive attack. Senior Kim Gries (Hicksville, N.Y.) handed out match-high 44 assists in the triumph.

Wall (Point Pleasant, N.J.) lifted 26 digs against the Golden Eagles with Barberan adding 19 in the win. Gries rounded out the day with 44 assists against St. Joseph's-LI, adding three kills to the winning effort. Alyssa Barbera (Islip Terrace, N.Y.) had three of the team's five aces in the match for the Mount and chipped in 12 digs in the victory. Klesin and senior Nicole Spinelli (Wantagh, N.Y.) tied for the team-lead in blocks with four, while Klesin also lifted 12 digs in the match.

Bohnenblusch lead the Golden Eagles with 13 kills while Young and Amanda Goldstein each had 10 winners. Silva handed out 21 assists and Parente gave out 19 helpers. Three different players had two aces for St. Joseph's-LI while Senecal lifted 26 digs to lead the team. Young lead the team in blocks with six.

Championship History: Since 2004, the Mount has earned a berth in the Skyline Championship in 11 straight seasons and 12 of the past 14 years. The Mount has advanced to the Skyline Conference Championship Final in five of the last eight seasons, including in 2012 when it won conference crown and in 2015 when it fell to Mount Saint Vincent.

Knights In The Community: Mount Saint Mary SAAC will be holding a canned food drive at Thursday's match. For each canned good donated, you will receive Halloween candy in our Cans for Candy Drive.

What's At Stake: The winner of Thursday's match will advance to face off against the winner of the Mount Saint Vincent and Merchant Marine semifinal in Saturday's final to represent the conference in the NCAA tournament.