Siena fell in back-to-back games to close out the final day of the Baltimore Bash, dropping in straight sets to Towson and Radford. Sophomore
Brooke Rogers, who hit a team-high 44 percent over the weekend, earned herself All-Tournament honors.
Match 1: Towson 3, Siena 0 (25-13, 25-14, 25-18)
Emily Jerome put up a match-high 15 kill performance, while teammate Jocelyn Kuilan collected 13 kills for a Tigers offense that hit 48 percent on the match. For Siena (0-3), senior
Antonija Ivanovic paced the team with eight kills, while sophomore
Dakota Jackson chipped in with four.
After an early 3-3 tie in the first set, Towson (1-1) set off on a 12-1 run that included six Siena attack errors to open up the match. The Tigers would never look back, combining to hit 68 percent in the first set, and grabbing a lead as large as 13 in the third set when they took a 21-8 advantage.
Freshman Maddy Dunnigan added three kills for Siena while hitting a team-high 43 percent on the match in her college debut. Sophomore
Jessica Eblin tossed out 16 assists while classmate JoJo Ishida led the team in digs with nine. Siena put up 22 total errors, including 11 attack errors on the match.
Match 2: Radford 3, Siena 0 (25-13, 25-17, 25-14)
Mallory McKnight smashed 11 kills while Grace Green had 11 digs as the Radford Highlanders (3-0) took advantage of 20 Siena attack errors en route to winning the Baltimore Bash winning all three of their games.
Junior
Nicole Deobler led Siena with eight kills while Jackson pumped in six kills. Jackson also added eight digs while Ishida had a team-high nine. Eblin had a season-high 23 assists on the match. As a team, the Saints hit only nine percent over the three sets.
"Our two matches today were both against quality opponents," said head coach
Vilis Ozols. "Towson played us tough and they were simply ahead of us in execution and that showed in the score. I was proud of the way the team played and handled themselves against Radford. Even in the loss, we grew as a team and benefited from the experience of playing an NCAA Tournament quality team."
After a tough first set loss, the Saints competed in the second set. After Radford pulled off an 8-2 run to take an 18-12 lead, Siena would make another comeback taking advantage of Highlander errors. The Saints would pull within four points as the set stood 21-17. However, Radford would finish off the set with four straight points, and continue the momentum and take the third set to close out the match.
Siena return to the court next Friday when they face St. John's in their first match of the Cornell Invitational in Ithaca, NY. The match is set for 5 p.m.