ROCHESTER, N.Y. –  The St. John Fisher College women's volleyball team played in a pair of matches Saturday at the University of Rochester Invitational. The Cardinals took a straight-sets win over Buffalo State College (25-18, 25-21, 25-15) before they fell to the host Yellowjackets (25-21, 25-19, 25-17).
 
The Cardinals were led by a pair of rookies in their win against the Bengals with Lindsey DeBonis recording a game-high 12 kills and Alexis Mancha putting up 22 digs. Both were new career-highs for the freshmen. Fisher ended its second week of play with a 3-5 overall record.
 
FISHER 3, BUFFALO STATE 0
 
Early in the first set with the score knotted at four a piece, the Cardinals went on a 4-0 run that included back-to-back aces by Mancha, putting Fisher up, 8-4. The Cardinals would take advantage of some Buffalo State errors later in the set on a 6-1 run that made it 24-15. Four points later Fisher would finish it off to claim the opening stanza.
 
Buffalo State held a one point edge in the second set when the Cardinals came soaring once again with a 7-1 run that was capped off by an ace by Kara Kingsbury to put Fisher on top, 11-6. The lead would remain at four or more until late in the set when the Bengals cut the margin to 24-21. A Buffalo State error would give the Cardinals the clinching point they were looking for as Fisher was in the driver's seat with a two sets to none advantage.
 
Fisher got right to work to start the third set. The freshman pair of Mancha and DeBonis worked together for the opening point. The Cardinals went on to score six more in a row to take a commanding 7-0 lead. DeBonis took her talents over to the service line later in the frame with three-straight aces to make it 19-9 in favor of Fisher. A kill by Olivia Levulis sealed the deal to earn a third-straight Cardinal victory.
 
ROCHESTER 3, FISHER 0
 
The first set wound up the closest of the match. The Cardinals took the lead at 8-7 off the combination of Emily Risch and Rebecca Hay blocking the ball at the net. Fisher would lose the lead and were unable to take it back for the rest of the set. The Cardinals made it close with back-to-back points to settle the score at 23-21. However, the Yellowjackets responded with back-to-back points of their own to win the first frame.
 
The Cardinals once again played strong in the early part of the set in the second with Alea Steigerwald scoring the first point off a kill. Lauren Gilbert also had two kills that put Fisher up, 5-3. Rochester would rally again though to go all the way up by double digits. A 4-0 run that included two Hay aces helped cut the difference to 24-19. But on the following point, Rochester earned the set victory.
 
The third set stayed relatively close throughout. Steigerwald put up her best efforts late with scoring the team's final three points, all on kills. Rochester wrapped it up to go 4-0 in their home invite.
 
Steigerwald had a game-high 16 kills and led the Cardinals with 13 digs in the defeat. The sophomore was Fisher's lone representative on the All-Tournament Team as Fisher finished in a tie for second at the invite with a 3-1 record. Hay continued to be an efficient facilitator by earning 56 assists combined between the two matches on Saturday. The junior has had at least 23 assists in seven of the eight contests this year.
 
The Cardinals will head down the Thruway next weekend for Buffalo State's Bengal Invite. Fisher hits the court at 7:30 p.m. on Friday to play John Carroll University.