OWINGS MILLS, Md. – The University of Scranton volleyball team (1-3) dropped a 3-1 decision to the Stevenson Mustangs (3-2) on Friday night at the Owings Mills Gymnasium.

Stevenson 3, Scranton 1 (25-13, 23-25, 19-25, 13-25)

Scranton raced out to an early lead in the first set and a service ace by freshman Lexi Brown (Macomb, Mich./Dakota) made it a 9-3 lead in favor of the Royals in the early going. Stevenson battled back to cut the lead to 11-8, but the Royals then answered with five of the next six points and sophomore Maddie Forry (Reading, Pa./Exeter Township) delivered a service ace of her own that made it 16-9. From there, the Mustangs were unable to get any closer than six the rest of the way and junior Stephanie Margolies (Westfield, N.J./Westfield) slammed home a kill to close out the 25-13 victory.

Stevenson held a 13-10 lead in the second set before a kill by junior Sophia Hadjiyane (Huntington, N.Y./John Glenn) and consecutive kills by Margolies evened things at 13 apiece. Scranton eventually took a 19-16 lead with five straight points, but the Mustangs were able to respond and captured four of the final five points in the 25-23 win.

The two teams were within striking distance of each other for much of the third set and Stevenson led 20-18 before closing things out by taking five of the next six points to take a 2-1 lead in sets with the 25-19 win. Brown delivered a kill for the Royals to even things at nine apiece in the fourth set before the Mustangs recorded six of the next eight points for a 15-11 edge. After a Margolies kill cut the deficit to three at 15-12, Stevenson took 10 of the final 11 points to close out the match.

Margolies led the Royals with a game-high 17 kills, while junior Erin Keaveney (Collegeville, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) had 13 and Brown came through with 11. Freshman Cammi Quirk (Oakland, N.J./Ridgewood) put together an impressive match with 44 assists and 10 digs.

Forry and sophomore Camryn Hoffman (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) had 16 digs apiece to lead Scranton.

Darian Dildy paced Stevenson with 12 kills.

The Royals are back in action on Saturday afternoon for a pair of a neutral site matches against DeSales (12 p.m.) and #22 Mary Washington (2 p.m.) 

--ROYALS--