PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College women's volleyball team flexed its muscles on Wednesday night in a sweep of visiting SUNY Geneseo in the team's season-opener on Bobby Wanzer Court.  With the win, Fisher, which is receiving votes in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, heads into a big weekend with a 1-0 record while the Knights remain in search of their first win.

Senior Alea Steigerwald led the way for Fisher with a game-high 18 kills to go along with 11 digs while Lindsey DeBonis put down 11 kills and added seven digs of her own in the win.  Delayne Young hammered home five kills while Katie Leaty fueled the Cardinals' offense with 35 assists. 

At the service line, Fisher accounted for nine aces including four from Leaty and two from Kara Kingsbury. As a team, the Cardinals hit .228 in the win and added 9.0 blocks at the net.   

After taking a back-and-forth first set, 25-22, following four of the frame's final five points, Fisher fell behind early in the second set after the Knights rallied for six straight points to force a timeout at 7-3.

From there, the visitors' advantage would grow to as many as eight before the Cardinals found a groove and scored six straight points of their own with Sydney French at the service line.  Trailing by two, 15-13, Fisher continued to battle down the stretch before an attacking error by the Knights started a five-point swing with Balmer, DeBonis and Steigerwald accounting for four straight kills to close out the frame, 25-23, to give Fisher a 2-0 edge.

Head coach Kelly Greapentrog's team carried its momentum over into the third set and quickly built a 5-2 lead courtesy of three straight kills by Steigerwald.  The flurry would be short-lived, however, as Geneseo recovered at the net and scored four of the next five points to pull even at six points aside.

Both teams continued to up the tempo as the set wore on with the Cardinals breaking a 13-13 tie following a pair of kills from Steigerwald and a Knights' error.  Ahead by three, Fisher would push its advantage to five points before Geneseo countered with three points of its own to make it 18-16.

Clinging to a two point gap late in the set, Fisher worked its system and produced a pair of kills on the pins from DeBonis and Young to pull out a 25-21 win.

Fisher will look to make some noise in the national standings at 2 p.m. on Friday when it travels to Ithaca to take on the Bombers and No. 6 Johns Hopkins as part of the Bomber Invitational.