OSWEGO, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College women's volleyball team took the floor for two matches on Saturday afternoon, wrapping up its three-match weekend at the Oswego State Invitational.

The Cardinals dropped the first match to Oneonta 10-25, 23-25, 21-25 and followed up with a back-and-forth defeat to Union 19-25, 19-25, 23-25. With the two non-conference defeats, the Cardinals move to 14-12 overall, while the Red Dragons improve to 9-15 and Union moves to 11-9 overall.

Oneonta was able to hold the Fisher offense stagnant in the first set of the day, as the Red Dragons were able to open up a 20-6 lead before taking home the first set victory.

After falling behind 10-5 early in the second set, Fisher was able to battle back to within one with the help of kills from Alea Steigerwald and Erica Pawlewicz, as well as an Elise Kreuz service ace.

From there, both sides battled back-and-forth till an eventual 20-20 tie on the scoreboard. Fisher would then score the next three points to earn a 23-20 advantage after a Molly Taylor kill. However, after an Oneonta timeout, the Red Dragons would rattle off the next five points, to earn a two sets to none lead.

Much like the second set, the Cardinals and Red Dragons battled back-and forth for the majority of the third set. Fisher had the kill advantage in the third set over Oneonta 14 to 12, however only two hitting errors from the Red Dragons turned out to be the difference maker in the end.

Steigerwald led the Fisher offense with nine kills, while Pawlewicz and Izzy Smith each finished with five kills. Taylor handled the setting duties, notching 12 assists and two service aces.

In its second match of the day, Fisher hit a combined .204 percent including 35 total kills, however fell in a hard fought battle with Union College.

After falling behind early in the first set, the Cardinals made their way back to within two points at 15-13, with the help of two kills from Smith. However, Union was able to regain the momentum and finished off the first set with an eight to three scoring run.

Fisher stormed out in the second set with five-straight points with Rebecca Hay leading the way at the service line. Union would then follow up with a five point run of its own, to tie the game up at 5-5. However, the Dutchmen would use two four-point scoring runs to gain momentum and a second set victory.

Much like the first two set, both sides would trade point's back-and-forth midway through the third set until the scoreboard read 15-17 in favor of Union. Fisher would then call a timeout and was able to keep the lead slim with two Steigerwald kills.

Union finished off the third set on another 5-1 scoring run, handing the Cardinals the non-conference defeat.

Hay finished the match with 16 assists, which moved her into ninth place all-time on the Fisher career assists list. The sophomore currently sits at 1,168 total assists so far in a Cardinal uniform.

Steigerwald again led the Cardinal offense, this time with 13 kills, while Smith added 11 kills and Bernadette Nichols pitched in six.

The Cardinals are back in action next Saturday at 11 a.m., when they welcome Stevens and Elmira to Manning and Napier Gymnasium for an Empire 8 Crossover competition.