BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College women's volleyball team opened the 2018 season by splitting a pair of matches in the 16th Annual Greyhounds Premiere Invitational, falling to Baldwin-Wallace (Ohio) University, 3-0, in the first match of the day before defeating Ursinus College, 3-1, to finish the night.
In the opening match versus Baldwin-Wallace, the Hounds fell set scores of 26-24, 25-15, 25-18. The Blue and Grey trailed 14-6 before rallying back to take a 21-20 lead on a service ace by junior libero Alexis Szaro. Moravian had a 24-23 lead in the set before the Yellow Jackets scored the final three points. In the final set, the Greyhounds had a 6-2 early lead on the service of freshman Kirah Dreisbach. Once again, Baldwin-Wallace would come back and flip a 9-8 deficit into a 14-9 lead before winning the set and match.
Dreisbach and senior middle blocker Erin Tiger each had five kills with Dreisbach adding seven digs and a pair of service aces while freshman middle blocker Renee Mapa had four kills and five blocks in her collegiate debut. Junior setter Victoria Kauffman contributed 18 assists, seven digs and three kills while freshman opposite hitter Sela Herber had three kills and eight digs. Szaro added nine digs and a pair of service aces.
The Greyhounds won the first two sets against the Bears, 25-18 and 25-19, before Ursinus rallied to take the third set, 25-18. Moravian answered back with a 25-19 victory in the fourth set to capture the match. Tiger and Mapa each had 10 kills to lead the Hounds in the win with Mapa adding a pair of blocks and Tiger serving up four service aces. Dreisbach contributed seven kills, five digs, four service aces and a pair of blocks while senior outside hitter Brooke Kusmider had five kills, four digs and two service aces.
Kauffman ran the offense with 32 assists to go with nine digs, six service aces and two kills while sophomore defensive specialist Jasmine Pavlinsky had seven digs and a trio of service aces. Herber added four kills, four digs and three service aces while freshman outside hitter Katie Hudson had three kills and three digs. Szaro contributed four digs while senior defensive specialist Bridgette Devlin and freshman libero Ally Locy each had three digs.
Moravian is slated to return to action on Saturday, September 1 with matches versus Swarthmore College at 10:00 a.m. and Alvernia University at 2:00 p.m. in Johnston Hall on the second day of the 16th Annual Greyhound Premiere.
