ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College women's volleyball team wrapped up its three-match weekend at the RIT Invitational on Saturday afternoon with a 1-1 record. Fisher defeated Buffalo State in straight sets to open up the day 25-17, 25-16, 25-14 and would then fall in a five-set thriller with the hosts RIT 25-22, 18-25, 21-25, 25-22, 10-15. The Cardinals finish the regular season with a 17-15 overall record, while the Bengals fall to 4-26 overall and the Tigers improve to 26-4 overall.

Freshman Alea Steigerwald rewrote the Fisher record book versus RIT as she broke the program record for kills in a single season, which was 460 total kills and previously held since 1998 by Katy Stratton. The Penfield native was also the Cardinal's representative on the 2018 New York State Regional Challenge All-Tournament Team for her performances over the weekend.

Much like its first match of the RIT invitational, the Fisher offense showed its strength throughout the entire match finishing with 49 kills on 97 attempts and a .381 hitting percentage.

The Cardinals opened up the first set with an early 14-4 scoring run that was led by two separate seven-point runs, led by Steigerwald and Rebecca Hay at the service line. Fisher kept its foot on the gas for the remainder of the first set, as five different Cardinals tallied a kill in the first set victory.

Both teams battled for the first quarter of the second set, eventually leading to a 7-9 Bengal's advantage. However it was the sophomore Hay again from the service line that put Fisher in the driver's seat, notching two more service aces and a five-point scoring run.

Fisher was able to keep the offense going throughout the second set and eventually finished of the Bengals with two kills and a service ace from Hay, Steigerwald, and Erica Pawlewicz.

The Cardinals maintained their momentum in the third set, once again using a pair of four and six-point scoring runs to lead them to a straight set victory. Molly Taylor handled the setting duties in the third set notching 12 assists, while Fisher capped of the third set with a .323 hitting percentage throughout.

Steigerwald led the way for the Cardinals with 22 kills on 37 attempts and an incredible .541 hitting percentage. Izzy Smith finished the match with 12 kills and a .500 hitting percentage, while Rebecca Hay added 25 assists. Elise Kreuz and Mikhala Martens led the way defensively, posting 18 and 11 digs respectively.

Fisher was right back on the court and was able to give RIT everything they could handle in the five-set thrilling match. The Cardinal offense kept its momentum going, posting 52 kills in the match and a .220 total hitting percentage.

Both teams came out ready to play and battled back-and-forth for the majority of the first set, until Fisher eventually was able to grab a 19-17 lead. From there, the Cardinals were able to hold off the Tiger's attack and grab the first set win with the help of a Steigerwald kill.

Following the first set victory, RIT was able to fight back in the match and take the next two very completive sets with the help of 27 total kills, compared to the 24 kills of Fisher.

However in the fourth set it was the Cardinal's turn to fight back, as Fisher used two late five and four-point scoring runs to earn the fourth set victory.

After falling behind 6-13 early on, Fisher made its way back with the help of a 10-4 run led by kills from Steigerwald and Smith. As the set wore on, Julia Halsey served-up a four-point run to help secure a deciding fifth set.

The fifth set saw back-and-forth action to start, however RIT secured the match victory with an 8-4 run to end the entertaining non-conference battle.

Steigerwald and Smith once again led the Cardinal offense posting 19 and 15 kills respectively, while Olivia Levulis added eight kills with a .615 hitting percentage.

Hay notched a team-high 43 assists, while Kreuz finished with a game-high 17 digs and moved into sixth place all-time on the program's career digs list.

The Cardinals are back in action on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. when they travel to Hoboken, N.J. to compete for an Empire 8 Championship, starting with Nazareth College in a semi-finals matchup.