LOUDONVILLE, NY - With pieces still missing from the starting lineup for the Siena Saints, they would have sparks of great play from freshman Maddy Dunigan, junior Justine Torre, and sophomore Brooke Rogers as they combined for four solo blocks and seven assisted blocks. The brick wall up front for Siena helped force the Iona Gaels into 17 team errors, including a .054 attack percentage in the third set.  Despite the strong defense, the Saints would fall short to the Gaels 3-0.

To pair with the green and gold's strong play up front, sophomore Nicole Deobler added 10 digs to lead the team on defense, while classmate JoJo Ishida followed her up with eight digs. Deobler also led the Saints (1-16, 0-8 MAAC) on offense with four kills on the day, with fellow sophomore Dakota Jackson adding three. However as a team, the Saints hit -.046 with 14 total kills but 18 errors on the match.

For Iona (8-5, 6-1 MAAC), Tess Connolly put up a match-high 10 kills for the Gaels, with Claire Archibald grabbing nine kills as well. Connolly also hit a team-high .471, with Cassandra Patsos added seven kills with a .429 attack percentage which would be second behind Connolly. Emma Rose led the defensive side with 14 digs on the match.

"The team did a great job sustaining rallies and being patient during the long plays," said head coach Vilis Ozols. "We have more and more players managing their roles better and better and that's creating runs in our favor."

The Saints opened the match strong, as they used a 4-0 run with the score at 15-11 to tie things up at 15-15 midway through the set. But Archibald stepped up for the Gaels, using three kills to help push a 10-3 run over the final part of the set to grab Iona a 25-18 win in set one to go up 1-0.

After a Torre kill for Siena to make things 6-6 early in the second set, Iona pulled off another big run, going 11-2 over the next 13 rallies to take a 17-9 lead. The deficit would be too large for Saints as they would fall 25-17 to fall 2-0 in the match.

Siena would use the play of Dunigan off the bench in the start of the third set to jump out to an early 6-2 lead. After a timeout by Iona, the Gaels scored six straight points to take an 8-6 lead. The third set would be Siena's strongest at the net, but would also display the most mistakes by both sides as they combined for 15 total errors. Despite Siena putting up four straight points to come within striking distance at 24-20, a service error by the Saints ended things at 25-20, giving Iona the 3-0 win.

The Saints return to the floor tomorrow, Sunday, October 7 when they play host to the Manhattan Jaspers. First set goes up at 1 p.m. in the ARC.