WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its first home match of the season, Catholic volleyball played in a hard-fought match up against Washington College, culminating in a close five-set loss for the Cardinals, to drop to 1-3 on the season.

The Cardinals captured their first opening set victory of the season by taking advantage of several service mistakes from the Shorewomen. In total, Washington College committed six service errors and Catholic was able to capitalize on those mistakes to take a 25-19 set one win. Sydney Hanley took a pass from Anna Maria Carella and finished off the set with her second kill to go up 1-0.

The next two sets were controlled by Washington College and it took both 25-17 and 25-18 respectively. The Shorewomen took a 9-8 lead in the middle of the second set and did not trail for the remainder of that set or the third set. Washington College had its best offensive output in the third set, finishing with 14 kills, with only one attacking error, and a .333 hit percentage.

After falling into a 6-0 hole to open up the fourth set, Catholic put together an impressive 11-0 run to take control back of the match. Vivian O'Brien, Grace Guerin and Kate Berra all picked up kills during the run with Gaby Hernandez-Ferraiuoli adding in an ace. Catholic led by three or more points for the rest of the set and pulled the match back even at two with a 25-19 win. O'Brien, Guerin and Ava Borcky all provided multiple kills in the set to spur the Cardinals offense.

It all came down to the fifth and decisive set where the Shorewomen put together another solid set, hitting .318 as a team. Catholic grabbed an early 2-1 advantage after kills from O'Brien and Borcky, but Washington College ripped off an 8-2 run to swing momentum back in its favor. The Cardinals pulled back within two at 13-11 but the Shorewomen captured the last two volleys to take the set 15-11 and close out their third win of the season.

O'Brien led the Cardinals in kills with a career-high of 10 followed by Tanya Sichling (7) and Borcky (6). Two setters split the majority of assists, Berra (17) and Carella (14). Berra earned herself a double-double with 14 digs as well and Hernandez-Ferraiuoli led the team with 20, moving her career total to 1,036, which moves her to 15th all-time in program history.

The Shorewomen were led in kills by Lindsay Saddic (16) and Giselle Kleinbussink (13). Allison McKechnie finished with a double-double with 23 assists and 13 digs. 

Catholic heads back on the road this weekend to take on Oglethorpe at the Raleigh Invitational. That match is scheduled for Friday, September 6 starting at 7 p.m.