PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The Marist women's volleyball team lost to the Duquesne Dukes in their season-opener Friday morning in straight sets (17-25, 22-25, 18-25). The Red Foxes (0-1) were led by sophomore Grace Hill (Portage, Mich.) who had team-highs in kills and digs with 12 apiece.
In the first set, Duquesne (1-0) jumped out to a 4-0 lead before kills by freshman Mackenzie Stephens (Holland, Mich.) and Hill cut the deficit in half. After a kill by Allison Foschia brought the Dukes lead to 15-10, the Red Foxes scored five of the next six points on a block and two kills by Hill, a service ace by Hanna Stoiberg (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) and an attack error by the Dukes to close the gap to 16-14. Marist would not get any closer however, as Duquesne scored 9 of the next 12 points, including two kills by Ashley Buse and a Patti Abshire service ace, to provide the final margin. The Red Foxes had a hitting percentage of only .114 for the set.
The second set saw a total of ten scoring ties. Hill contributed two early kills to help the Red Foxes jump out to a 4-1 lead, but Duquesne quickly came back to tie the score at 4. The two teams played even for the next several points with neither team creating more than a 2-point lead until the Dukes grabbed a 13-10 lead on an Allison Foschia kill. Two Duquesne errors, sandwiched between two kills by Hill helped Marist tie the score again at 15. However, after a Joanna Foss (Northville, Mich.) kill again knotted it up at 19, scored three straight points, including back-to-back blocks by Liz Homan and Foschia. Kills by Stephens and Hill were not enough as the Dukes closed out the set on a Taylor Jones kill.
Marist played its best in the third set, hitting at .308, including five kills by Stephens, but it was not enough to slow down the Duquesne offense as they had an astounding .400 hitting percentage for the set. After a Stephens' kill cut Duquesne's lead to 10-9, the Dukes scored five of the next six points and never looked back. Back-to-back kills by Stephens brought the Red Foxes within four at 22-18, the Dukes finished off the match with kills by Jones, Homan and Sara Scheirman.
Stephens finished the match with nine kills, Stoiberg and Audra Brady (Allentown, Pa.) had 17 and 16 assists respectively and freshman Brooke Zywick (Garden City, Mich.) contributed 11 digs. As a team, Marist had ten service errors to only two by Duquesne.
The Red Foxes continue play in the Pitt/Duquesne Invitational with two matches on Saturday against co-host Pittsburgh at 11 a.m. and St. Francis (Pa.) at 4 p.m.
