Pittsford, NY- The Sage Colleges' women's volleyball team travelled to St. John Fisher College on Saturday for the team's 2017 Empire 8 opening day matches and faced the host St. John Fisher and Alfred University in league play. Against Alfred, Sage fell 3-1 (25-21, 24-26, 25-13, 25-22) in the first match. In the final match, Sage fell to St. John Fisher, 3-0 (25-12, 25-10, 25-16). The Gators are now 5-12 overall and 0-2 in the empire 8.
Against Alfred, sophomore middle hitter Miranda Nethaway (Fonda, NY/Fonda Fultonville) paced the squad with her eight kills, three digs and two block assists. Senior libero Missy Schneiderman (Middletown, NY/Minisink Valley) chipped in with 13 digs for the match, while junior setter Brittany Orminski (Galway, NY/Galway) had five kills with an impressive .444 attack percentage in the match. Orminski also had nine setting assists with three aces and seven digs.
Senior Alyssa Nellis (Johnstown, NY/Johnstown) picked up five kills with 14 setting assists, two aces and six digs for the Gators. Rookie outside hitter Zarissa Wheeler (Poughkeepsie, NY/Arlington) just missed a double-double as she had 10 digs with seven kills in the match.
Against St. John Fisher, Orminski had nine digs with four kills, while Schneiderman had eight digs in the action. Nellis also had eight digs and eight setting assists to match her two block assists with two kills.
Schneiderman now has 1,220 career digs and moved ahead of Kaitlin Olmstead (2005-08, 1208 digs) for the No. 5 spot on the digs list at Sage. Nellis now has 413 career kills and ranks 20th best all-time at Sage, while standing ninth all-time with her 162 career blocks. She is just one shy of tying Joanne Augstein (2002-03) for the No. 8 spot with 163 career total blocks.
Sage is back in action on September 27 as they travel to Hartwick College for a 7 p.m. match-up with the Hawks in Empire 8 play.