WASHINGTON, D.C. — On family weekend, the Catholic volleyball team welcomed Juniata and Mary Washnigton for a tri-match at Franny Murray Court. The Cardinals dropped both matches on the day to fall to 8-12 on the season.

MATCH ONE - Juniata 3, Catholic 0 (25-12, 25-16, 25-21)

To open up the day, the Cardinals welcomed in the #1 team in the country in Juniata and the top-ranked Eagles lived up to the billing, pulling off their sixth consecutive sweep, 3-0.  Juniata offensively made the most of every swing hitting an impressive .351 in the match. Its most prolific offensive set came in the second where the Eagles picked up 14 kills on 26 swings without committing a single error for a .538 hit percentage.

The Cardinals battled during the third set and got out to an early 6-1 lead with a kill from Laci Freitas and an ace Gaby Hernandez-Ferraiuoli. Juniata answered with a 4-0 to pull things back even at seven but with the match at 10-9 the Cardinals once again seized momentum with a 4-0 run spurred by two Vivian O'Brien kills to give the Cardinals a 13-10. Catholic once again went on a 4-0 run later in the set to take a 4-0 lead with the help from kills by Grace Guerin and Ava Borcky. With a late 21-20 lead, the Cardinals surrendered the final five volleys capped off by an Audrey Muth kill to close out the sweep.

Guerin, O'Brien and Borcky all led the Cardinals in kills with five. Gaby Hernandez-Ferraiuoli was the digs leader with 11 and also added five assists to the cause. Kate Berra and Anna Maria Carella also tacked on seven and six assists respectively.

The Eagles finished the match with 14 service aces as a team with Olivia Foley leading the way with five. Juniata moved to 2-0 in Landmark play as Catholic dropped to 1-1. 

MATCH TWO - Mary Washington 3, Catholic 0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-20)

In the second match of the day, the Cardinals played in a very hard-fought match but fell to Mary Washington in three close sets to go 0-2 on the day. 

Catholic got out to a strong start to open up the match, scoring on the first four volleys with kills coming from Julia Raab and Guerin. The set was a tight battle after that and was all square at 11 before the Eagles opened up their first cushion with a 7-2 lead to get up 17-13. Mary Washington came up with the final kill by Libby Potter to take the set 25-22. Raab put up a solid opening set offensively leading the Cardinals with six kills. 

The Cardinals had their best offensive set in the second set coming up with 15 kills and hitting .231 as a team. The match was sitting at 19-18 in the late stages and the Eagles closed out the set on a 6-3 run to finish off a set two win. Laci Freitas put together a strong set for herself with five kills to help the Cardinals offensive contributions.

In the third set, the Cardinals fell into a 16-11 hole, but were able to cut the deficit down to 18-16 after kills from Erin Faughnan, Raab and Freitas. Mary Washington once again responded however with the key plays down the stretch and a Chloe Crosen kill closed out the sweep for Mary Washington, 25-20.

Raab was the kills leader for Catholic with 11 followed by Freitas who finished with a career-high of nine kills. Carella and Berra both finished with 15 kills in the loss and Hernandez-Ferraiuoli was the digs leader with 15.

The Cardinals will continue Landmark Conference play on Friday when they once again hit the road to take on Drew. Catholic takes on the Rangers on October 11 with the match set to start at 11 pm.