LOUDONVILLE, NY – The middle part of sets continued to haunt Saints Volleyball as Siena built leads in the early stages of the match before surrendering large runs by Niagara in a 3-0 loss (17-25, 18-25, 9-25) against the Purple Eagles in conference action on Sunday afternoon at the UHY Center. 
 
The Saints (2-23, 2-13 MAAC) were led once again by junior outside hitter Sara Wagner, who submitted another double-digit kill performance.  A day after producing 16 kills on Saturday against Canisius, Wagner followed it up with a 10 kill-nine digs outing on a .273 hitting percentage versus Niagara. 
 
Redshirt junior Sina Toroslu put down her most kills in a match (eight) since August 26 against NJIT when she tallied nine.  The Stuttgart, Germany native also notched her highest hitting percentage of the season (.538) to go along with five digs and three total blocks.
 
Junior Claire Isaksen and freshmen Oliwia Majtyka each totaled 11 assists apiece while libero Emily Wood added eight digs.
 
Niagara (10-12, 9-5 MAAC) was led by Cassie Seminoff, who had nine kills, 13 digs and three aces.  Lexi Bapst had seven kills, 11 digs, and two aces. 
 
Siena grabbed a 6-2 advantage in the first set when the Saints received two kills from Kayla Jones and Olga Sawinska and one from Toroslu. All came on feeds from Isaksen.  The Purple Eagles battled back to tie at six-all on a kill from Bapst and three consecutive attacking errors by the Saints.  Wagner and Sonja Meyer kept Siena up at 8-7 on passes from Oliwia Majtyka.  But, Niagara won seven of the next eight on a slew on Siena errors and a pair of kills from Seminoff.  Siena scored three straight points to get within 14-12, but Niagara responded with a decisive 10-1 run to pull ahead. 
 
In the second set, Siena battled competitively early once again, tying Niagara at 4-4, 5-5, and 6-6.  A kill by Hannah Bowman and two by Toroslu kept them even.  Niagara went on a 10-2 run sparked by the serving of Kylie Blessing and Seminoff.  Siena would get as close as within five on multiple occasions with kills from Toroslu and Wagner.  An attack error and a bad set by the Saints gave the Purple Eagles the set.
 
In the third, Siena trailed just 6-5 in the early goings of the set after a kill by Jones off a feed from Meghan Johnsson.  With Niagara's Bapst and Katie Jacobs mostly serving, it sparked a 14-1 run.  An attack error by the Saints wrapped the match.
 
Siena hits the road next weekend to play at Fairfield (15-5, 11-1 MAAC) on Saturday at 1 p.m.