Box Score vs. St. Edward's
Box Score vs. St. Leo

SAINT LEO, Fla. - The Unversity of New Haven women's volleyball team dropped two matches on Saturday against St. Edward's Unviersity (Texas) and St. Leo University in Florida. With the two losses, the Chargers fall to 0-4 in their trip south to open the 2011 season. The Chargers fell 0-3 (25-10, 25-19, 25-18) in their first game of the day against St. Edward's and then 0-3 (25-19, 25-12, 25-20) to Saint Leo in their nightcap.

Match One vs. St. Edward's
After opening the first set with a 3-2 lead, the Chargers struggled in their opening set of the day. UNH fell down 10-5. Later in the set, St. Edward's went on a four point scoring spree before five unanswered points sealed the going ahead victory in the match.

In the second set, UNH trailed early, by as many as seven points, 9-2. After scoring their third point, UNH went on a 6-3 lead to cut the advantage to 12-9 in favor of St. Edward's. The Chargers would later go on a 3-0 run to bring the score within two points, 17-15. The Hilltoppers went on and scored six of the final eight points and took a 2-0 advantage in the match.

The Chargers and Hilltoppers once again went nearly point-for-point to open the third set, despite a slight advantage to St. Edward's. The Chargers trailed by just one point, 10-9, before the Hilltoppers went on an 8-3 run to take a 19-12 lead late in the set. St. Edward's concluded the match with a kill for a 25-18 victory in the closing set.

Offensively, the Chargers were led by Keidy Candelaria (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico/Bayamon Military Academy) who collected 10 kills. Elizabeth Akinbiyi (Miami Gardens, Fla./Chaminade-Madonna Prep.) added seven kills and two blocks, while Amber Cannady (Yonkers, N.Y./Charles E. Gorton) collected four total blocks. Freshman Kaulana Ane (Paia, Hawai'i/Kamehameha) led the team with 18 assists, while senior Heather Ladao (West Covina, Calif./Rowland ) college 11 digs.

Match Two vs. Saint Leo
New Haven and Saint Leo played very even through the first third of the opening set. The teams were tied at 7-7 before Saint Leo went on a 5-1 run to take a 12-8 lead. The Lions held on to the lead through the rest of the sent, and went on a 7-1 run to secure a 25-19 victory in the opening set.

The Chargers scored the first two points of the second set, but struggled late in the set. Trailing 8-6, the Chargers surrenderred four straight points to fall behind 12-6. The Lions would continue to go on scoring sprees and eventually took a 25-12 victory in set two.

The final set was much closer contested. Despite trailing by seven, 8-1, early in the set, the Chargers used a 5-1 run early on to bring the score back within three points, 9-6. New Haven would late trail by nine points ,18-9, and again go on a number of scoring runs to trim the lead by to four points, 24-20, much later in the set. The Lions sealed the victory with a UNH service error which gave them the 25-20 win.

Akinbiyi led the team with nin kills and a .412 hitting percentage. Ane dished out 11 assists, while Ladao again added 11 digs. Cannady tailled another six total blocks in the match.

New Haven will return to action on Friday, September 9 when they travel to N.Y.I.T. for a 7 p.m. match.