PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The University of Scranton volleyball team (3-1) dropped a 3-0 decision to the Marietta College Pioneers (4-0) on Friday night at Weigand Gym on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University.

Marietta led throughout much of the first set and opened up a 15-7 lead at one point before the Royals fought back to cut the deficit to four on several occasions, but were unable to get any closer in the 25-19 setback.

The Royals trailed 10-9 in the second set when a five-point run including a pair of kills from senior Sophia Hadjiyane (Huntington, N.Y./John Glenn) opened up a 14-10 lead for the time being. Head coach Jamie Spangler's team led 15-11 when Marietta recorded eight of the next nine points to take the lead back at 19-16 and eventually notched a 25-18 victory.

The third set featured the two teams trading points throughout and the Royals used three straight points including senior Maddie Orth's (Nazareth, Pa./Nazareth) service ace that made it 18-16 for the time being. From there, the two sides exchanged three-point runs and Scranton had set point at 24-22, but Marietta posted five of the final six points in the 27-25 win.

Junior Deanna Whelpley (Congers, N.Y./Immaculate Heart Academy) led the Royals offensively with nine kills, while Hadjiyane added eight kills and two block assists. Sophomore setter Cammi Quirk (Oakland, N.J./Ridgewood) tallied 16 assists on the night and senior Gianna Detorie (Rumford, R.I./Bishop Feehan) added 13.

Elsewhere for Scranton, junior Camryn Hoffman (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) added a team-high 12 digs and four assists.

The Royals will take on Carnegie Mellon (11 a.m.) and Westminster (Pa.) (3 p.m.) in a pair of matches on Saturday.