In their quest for a third straight GNAC championship, the women's volleyball team set out on a trip to Virginia Beach, VA over Labor Day Weekend to take in some tough competition to get the season started.  The Raiders went 1-3 in their opening weekend, but got some positive feedback as they come back to New England to continue the season.

On Friday, September 4^th the Raiders fell 0-3 as they stumbled out of the gate against Christopher Newport University (Newport News, VA) as excitement and nervousness got in the way of the team playing up to their potential.  Juniors Nicole Rodriguez and Danielle Jacques led the team with 4 and 3 kills respectively.  Sophomore setter Lauren Saccoccio could only muster 12 assists on 70 attempts as the Christopher Newport height advantage was very apparent against the Raider offense.  Sophomore Danielle Stoodley paced the Raider defense as she lipped 12 digs while only making 1 error in 12 pass attempts on serve receive.

Rivier     18           15           12
CNU       25           25           25

In the second match of the day the Raiders took on Gwynedd-Mercy College (Gwynedd Valley, PA) with a much more level headed attack.  The nerves were gone and the Raiders pounced all over the Griffins to take the 3-0 victory.  The Raiders were led by senior middle hitter Lindsay Chace who paced the Raiders with 6 kills on only 11 attempts.  Junior outside hitter Brittni Taylor added 4 kills of her own while sophomore Danielle Stoodley connected on 5 kills with no errors for a .417 hitting percentage.  Sophomore setter Caitlin Callahan and freshman setter Christi Pratte ran the offense together capturing 9 and 8 assists respectively.  Senior libero Becky Gautreau was a perfect 11 for 11 on serve receives as the Raiders easily handled the Griffin attack.

Rivier     25           25           25
GMC      10           18           19

On day 2, the Raiders faced a tough University of Mary Washington (Fredericksburg, VA) team.  The Raiders played neck and neck during the first set falling 25-27 on two tough serves by the Eagles.  The Raiders mistakes then started to mount as the team could only total 22 kills with 24 hitting errors, dropping the match 0-3.  Junior Nicole Rodriguez did her best as she led the team with 6 kills.  Freshman outside hitter Kenna Finlayson also found some success with 5 kills of her own.  Setter Lauren Saccoccio got more consistent as the tournament went on racking up 21 assists in the match.  The Raider could only pick up 26 total digs, but with sophomore libero Emiliegh Cenedella picking up 15 of those digs; she was doing her best to not let the Raiders fall.

Rivier     25           16           17
UMW     27           25           25

In the final match of the tournament, the Raiders took on host Virginia Wesleyan College (Virginia Beach, VA).  Unfortunately they Raiders had no answer for the Marlins attack as the Raiders were constantly off balance offensively.  Junior Danielle Jacques lad the team with 6 kills and 2 blocks while Kenna Finlayson and Nicole Rodriguez added 5 and 4 kills respectively.  Libero Danielle Stoodley paced the Raider Defense with 13 digs.

Rivier     10           13           10
VWC      25           25           25

Freshman Kenna Finlayson was selected by the opposing coaches to the Virginia Beach Holiday Inn Invitational All-Tournament Team in her first weekend as a Raider.

The Raiders will travel to Roger Williams University to play 3 matches on Saturday, September 12^th.  The Raiders will face RWU at 11:00 am, University of New England at 1:00 pm and NYU-Polytechnic at 3:00 pm.