NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The Macalester College volleyball team kicked off the 2018 campaign with a 3-0 victory over Crown College before narrowly falling to UW-River Falls in five sets on the first day of the St. Olaf/Carleton Tournament on Friday at St. Olaf. The Scots open the season 1-1.

In the sweep of Crown, Macalester won by scores of 25-18, 25-14, 25-20. Sophomore middle hitter Sofia Parmelee (Tenafly, N.J./Tenafly) led the way with seven kills, while senior outside hitter Gabby Ivy (St. Louis, Mo./John Burroughs) and juniors Grace Brickner (Bronx, N.Y./Fieldston) and Ashley Helfinstein (Sunnyvale, Calif./Homestead) each had four kills. Senior setter Emily Bowler (South Salem, N.Y./John Jay) dished out 22 assists and had seven digs. Sophomore defensive specialist Abrielle Dillon (Brown Deer, Wis./University School of Milwaukee) paced the defense with 13 digs.

Against UW-River Falls, Macalester won the first and third sets, then took a 23-21 edge in the fourth set. But the Falcons battled back to win the fourth set, 29-27 to force a fifth set. The Scots trailed for most of the final set but fought back to tie the score at 13-13 before UWRF tallied the final two points to clinch the win. Senior outside hitter Nicole Bennington (Shelton, Wash./Olympia) tallied 12 kills, with Brickner adding 10 kills and four blocks. Bowler delivered 25 assists and 15 digs. Defensively, Dillon racked up 39 digs, and the Scots totaled 15 blocks, including six from Parmelee. Senior Sofi Ascencio (Oakland, Calif./Holy Names) contributed eight kills and 14 digs in the loss.

Macalester concludes the St. Olaf/Carleton Tournament on Saturday, Sept. 1 with matches against Simpson at 1:00 p.m. and Bethany Lutheran at 3:00 p.m. Both matches will be played at Carleton.

MAC (3) – 25 25 25
Crown (0) – 18 14 20

MAC (2) – 25 20 25 27 13
UWRF (3) – 20 25 20 29 15