WASHINGTON, D.C.  — The Catholic volleyball team played in one final tri-match in the regular season before heading to the postseason against two familiar opponents in Lynchburg and Marymount (Va.).

MATCH ONE - Lynchburg 3, Catholic 1 (25-19, 25-18, 20-25, 25-17)

Despite an impressive defensive performance from graduate libero Gaby Hernandez-Ferraiuoli, Catholic fell to Lynchburg for the second time this season, 3-1, on Friday afternoon in game one of today's tri-match. 

The Cardinals dropped the first two sets 25-19 and 25-18 before fighting back with a 25-20 victory to force a fourth set. However, the Hornets hit .265 in a convincing 25-17 fourth-set victory to close out the match. 

Laci Freitas totaled 12 kills to lead the Cardinals offensively while Hernandez-Ferraiuoli had a well-rounded match, racking up 28 digs, five assists, and two aces. It was her fourth match this season with 25 or more digs which put her just 24 shy of 600 for the season. For the freshman Freitas, it was her fifth match this season with 10 or more kills and the first since October 25 against Elizabethtown. 

Erin Faughnan logged an impressive six solo blocks while Grace Guerin had five kills, three solo blocks, and three block assists on the day. Guerin surpassed 300 points for the season while Faughnan climbed past the 200-kill mark for the second straight season. 

Three Hornets recorded 10 or more kills with Tori Williamson leading the way with 13. Lynchburg added 13 service assists on the day with Haydyn Proscia totaling four while Kailey Keough, Morgan Clark, and Emma Cash each had three. 

MATCH TWO - Marymount (Va.) 3, Catholic 1 (25-17, 25-21, 22-25, 26-24)

Catholic came into the second contest of the evening having already defeated the Saints earlier in the season, but Marymount flipped the script on the Cardinals this time around off the back of a career performance from Maya Harris to send Catholic to 14-20 heading into the conference tournament.

The Cardinals battled early in the first set and only trailed 9-8 in the early stages, but Marymount seized control with a 7-1 run to open up a seven point advantage. Kills from Vivian O'Brien and Guerin helped Catholic fight back into the match and get the deficit back down to three, but with a 22-17 lead the Saints captured the last three volleys to take down the first set 25-17.

The Saints picked up their most amount of kills in a set in the second with 16 on 39 swings for a .231 hit percentage. Marymount took the lead early and in fact never trailed or tied in the set after 0-0. The Cardinals tried to fight back with a 4-0 run late in the set after an Ava Borcky but Harris closed out the set, 25-21. 

Catholic punched back into the match in the third after falling behind 15-12 with a 5-1 run helped by a few errors from the Saints to take a 17-16 lead. With the match even at 22, O'Brien put the Cardinals back on top 23-22 with a kill and Freitas put the finishing touches on the set win with back-to-back aces to make the match 2-1.

The match was neck and neck the whole fourth set before Catholic seized some momentum with three straight volleys going its way to take a 23-20 lead. Faughnan came up with a kill to force a set point for the Cardinals, however a 5-0 run for the Saints to close out the set, rallied by three Harris kills stole the fourth set and closed out a 3-1 win for Marymount. 

Guerin led the way with 10 kills, the fifth time she's tallied double-digit kills this season, to cross the 200 kill mark in a season for the first time in her career. She also added six more blocks to bring her season total to 124 which is tied for the ninth most in a single season in program history (Audrey Bizak, 2013). 

Hernandez-Ferraiuoli added 25 more digs to her season total to eclipse the 600 digs mark in the season for the first time in her career. Her 601 digs are the ninth most in a single season in program history and she is also just the ninth player ever to have 600 or more digs in a season in program history. 

The Cardinals are now heading to the postseason on Tuesday, November 12 when they hit the road to take on the fourth seeded Susquehanna River Hawks. It is the first time since 2015-16 that the program has made it to back-to-back Landmark Conference tournaments and the team will try to earn its first win over Susquehanna in the conference tournament.