Live Friday: UMBC Live Stats | Delaware Live Stats 
Live Satutday: George Mason Live Stats

Loretto, Pa. – The Saint Francis women's volleyball team treks to Maryland for three games at the UMBC Invitational from Friday, Sep. 6 – Saturday, Sep. 7. SFU's opponents will be UMBC, Delaware and George Mason.
 
Scouting UMBC
 
After a season-opening win over Lafayette, the Retrievers fell in five sets to Fairfield and three to Temple. Freshman Kamani Conteh led UMBC with 39 kills in the three matches and last year's leader in kills, Carmen Freeman, added 27. UMBC went 7-19 last season and 3-9 in the America East.
 
Scouting Delaware
 
Delaware took a step forward in its opening weekend of the 2019 season by posting a 2-1 record after finishing 9-19 overall and 3-13 in the CAA last season. Saint Francis will have to key on senior Maria Bellinger who led the Blue Hens by a large margin with 464 kills last season. She registered a team-high 44 kills in three matches at the Delaware Classic where the Blue Hens fell in four sets to West Virginia before sweeping Binghamton and Coppin in three. Freshman Lani Mason had an impressive debut with 34 kills.
 
Scouting George Mason
 
The Patriots return its top three hitters from last season's 10-15 squad in Bailey Williams, ShaLi Niu and Peyton Ehmke as well as setter Emily Konchan. The Patrots opened the season with three-set losses to East Carolina and Providence despite a team-leading 27 kills from Williams.
 
Tyus Makes All-Tournament Team
 
Sophomore Madi Tyus (Plano, TX/Bishop Lynch), who set an SFU freshman record for kills on her way to Second Team All-NEC honor in 2018, was a dominant force again in SFU's three matches at last weekend's Youngstown State Invitational. After a pedestrian seven kills in match one, Tyus registered 17 kills in a loss to The Citadel and 18 in just three sets vs. Bucknell to finish with 42 total kills in three matches. She was named to the All-Tournament Team for her efforts.
 
New Faces Provide Key Contributions
 
Last year's standouts, Tyus and sophomore Nicole Adams (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa East) showed they will feature heavily once again for the young Red Flash team, but they received sounds contributions from newcomers and teammates with limited experience. Junior Logan Belford (Loveland, Colo./Loveland), in her first year with the program, played in all 10 sets and was third on the team with 23 digs. Sophomore Keara McGraw (Austin, TX/James Bowie) surpassed her kill total from all of last season with 12 in three games and sophomore Sophie Rice (Mechanicsburg, PA/Cumberland Valley) and redshirt freshman Alexa Mamone (Beaver, PA/Beaver Area) added six kills.
 
Closing Out Sets
 
Saint Francis struggled to close out sets, particularly late. That was on full display in its three-set loss to Bucknell where Saint Francis reached 21 or more points in all three sets and had set point in set one before losing 27-25. Saint Francis held a lead at one point or another in all 10 sets played last weekend, despite only winning one.