PITTSBURGH, PA – Showing plenty of mettle, the Siena Volleyball team stood up to the task at hand—battling a decorated Duquesne team that entered 8-2 on the season and had defeated Power Four member Notre Dame last weekend— in the opening two sets before taking a tough 3-0 defeat by the scores of 25-21, 25-22, 25-10 to close out the Natale Sporting Good Invitational held at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse on Saturday.
Siena (5-7) had its moments, hitting .200 in the opening set and followed that up by hitting an even loftier .333 in the next set. It was a valiant effort against a team that had won 18 games last season and reached the conference semifinals of the Atlantic-10 Tournament.
But, the Dukes (9-2) proved to be too much on this day as Duquesne hit .307 for the match as they were backed by a 14-kill performance from Simone Searles and another 12 kills from Emerson Schrom.
In the opening set, Siena peeled off five straight points and later led 20-18 before the Dukes sealed with a 7-1 run.
Junior outside hitter
Gabrielle Wire led Siena with 10 kills while hitting .333 and adding one block assist. Redshirt senior libero
Brooke Malek recorded a team-high 15 digs and added one assist. Junior setter
Abby Edwards finished with 16 assists, six digs and one block assist. Redshirt sophomore outside hitter
Brianna Miller added eight kills and eight digs.
Wire was named to the Natale Sporting Good Invitational All-Tournament team for producing 28 kills on a .289 hitting percentage to go along with 10 digs, a pair of assists and two blocks in the three matches this weekend.
Set-by-Set Against
In the opening set, Siena put itself ahead 21-19 on a
Doga Diraz kill from
Oliwia Majtyka, but Duquesne had the final response. Earlier, Wire helped Siena start quickly with kills on three of its first seven points, and
Mary Claire Deacy also finished a set from Edwards. Miller then served through four straight Siena points, with Wire tying the set at 7-7, Wire and
Alison Goldberg combining on a block for an 8-7 lead, and Goldberg teaming with Diraz on another block before a Duquesne error made it 10-7. After Duquesne worked back to a 16-15 lead, Siena answered with Goldberg kill, a Duquesne attack error and a Miller kill to move back in front 18-16. Duquesne scored the final six points from there to take the set 25-21.
After falling behind 18-12 in the second set, Siena mounted its clearest push, cutting Duquesne's lead to 22-20 behind kills from Deacy and Wire, an
Autumn Willmott ace and a block by
Maggie Seymour and Deacy. Earlier, Miller helped keep Siena close through the middle of the set, recording a string of kills as Duquesne moved from a 10-6 lead to 14-11. Siena continued to answer late, with Wire adding three kills after Duquesne reached 22 points to keep the set within reach. Duquesne, however, scored three of the final five points and closed out the second set, 25-22.
In the third set, Siena could not recover after Duquesne's eight-point run with Londyn Stone serving, a stretch that moved the score from 8-4 to 16-4 on the way to Duquesne's 25-10 set win. Earlier, Diraz and Miller each finished kills off Majtyka assists as Siena answered early Duquesne points, but Siena was still down 7-4 before the separation grew. Edwards and Seymour combined on a block to stop the long Duquesne run, and Wire later added a kill from Edwards during a brief two-point response. Goldberg put down a late kill from Edwards and Deacy followed with an ace to get Siena to 10 points before Duquesne scored the final two points to close the set.
Up Next
Siena visits Saint Peter's (0-10) on Friday at 6 p.m. at Victor R. Yanitelli, S.J. Recreational Life Center in Jersey City, New Jersey to open Metro play.
