ASHLAND, Va. – On the opening day of the R-MC Invitational, Randolph-Macon women's volleyball got a straight sets victory over the visiting St. Mary's (Md.) Seahawks, 3-0. Juniors Miranda Hall (Mechanicsville, Va. / Hanover) and Alexia Wolfe (Midlothian, Va. / James River) each made 12 kills in the match.

The Basics

Score: Randolph-Macon 3, St. Mary's (Md.) 0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-17)

Location/Venue: Ashland, Va./Crenshaw Gymnasium

Records: Randolph-Macon (12-6, 7-1 ODAC), St. Mary's (Md.) (12-13, 0-3 CAC)

How It Happened

• St. Mary's took the slight edge early on, but R-MC came roaring back, as junior Angela Tender (Manassas, Va. / Stone Bridge) scored a service ace to tie the match at 8-8. The Seahawks got ahead again, but not for long as R-MC got a four-point run to go up by one at 15-14. SMC would tie the match at 15 each, while R-MC would tie it at 16 each. The back-and-forth nature of the match continued until the end, where R-MC got kills from Hall and Wolfe to go up by one and an SMC error ended the set in R-MC's favor 25-22.
• St. Mary's mounted another attack in the second set. The Seahawks got ahead by two before R-MC came back to tie the set at 5-5. It was R-MC's chance to get the slight lead, going ahead by two on another service ace from Tender. R-MC lead until SMC forced a Yellow Jacket error to tie at 14-14. R-MC got four points in a row to jump ahead 18-14, where they never relinquished the lead, winning 25-21.
• R-MC had the early jump in the third set. Ahead 6-3 and 7-4, R-MC kept the pressure on the Seahawks for the entire frame. The Seahawks got as close as one point early on in the set, but a 5-2 run for the Yellow Jackets pushed them out to a sizable margin. As the teams traded points, SMC could not get closer than three for the remainder of the set, where R-MC ended the frame and the match with a 5-2 run to close the set to 25-17.

Inside The Numbers

• R-MC hit .278 in the final set and .218 for the entire match.
• Besides Hall and Wolfe's 12 kills, senior Mariah Clark (Stuarts Draft, Va. / Riverheads) finished with six, freshman Sydney Koch (Raleigh, N.C. / Sanderson) finished with four and senior Emily Fitzwater (Bealeton, Va. / Liberty) and junior Bailey Jones (Suffolk, Va. / Norfolk Collegiate) each finished with three. Freshman Madison Warlick (Charlottesville, Va. / Albemarle) tallied a kill as well.
• Wolfe also led the Yellow Jackets with 13 digs and was followed closely by Warlick with 11 and sophomore Mackenzie Loewe (Leonardtown, Md. / St. Mary's Ryken) who had ten.
• Tender was R-MC's assist leader with 21 while fresman Macguire Gubba (Grove City, Pa. / Grove City Area) had 15 and Loewe tallied three.
• Tender had four service aces on the match, with Warlick and Clark each throwing in one as well.
• Koch was R-MC's block leader with seven. Clark had three as well and Wolfe tallied two. Hall and Jones each tossed in one as well.
• Hall hit .417 on the match, making 12 kills and just two errors on 24 attacks.

Up Next

Randolph-Macon finishes the R-MC Invitational tomorrow, beginning with #6 Juniata at 11:00 AM and Messiah at 2:00 PM. Washington and Lee will visit Ashland as well and will play the opposite visitors in Alumni Gym.