Langhorne, PA - The Cairn women's volleyball team hosted the Gators of Notre Dame of Maryland University on Thursday night and suffered a 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-14) defeat at the hands of the Gators. Cairn fought back from deficits of ten-points and seven-points late in the first and second sets, respectively, to close the gap but it was not enough in either game to pick up either game.
 
Whitney Seidel led the Highlanders with four kills. Liz White led the way for Cairn with nine assists on the evening.
 
The first set opened with the Highlanders scoring the first four points of the match to take an early 4-0 lead. A Haley Sheehan ace began the match and two points later Whitney Seidel collected a kill to highlight the early going. Unfortunately, the Gators came storming back to claim seven of the next eight points to take a 7-5 lead.
 
After Cairn pulled to within one at 10-9, before the Gators went on a quick 3-0 run that eventually turned into a 12-4 run. A few points later, trailing by 10 and facing set point the Highlanders picked up the pace with Seidel serving and won five straight points before a service error ended the set and gave the Gators a 25-19 set one victory.
 
Once again the Gators used a massive run in the middle of the set to take a substantial lead. Trailing 7-6, the Gators rattled off eight-straight points to double up the Highlanders at 14-7. The lead remained seven for the Gators until it stood at 17-10 when Cairn started a 9-1 run to take a lead at 19-18. On the run the Highlanders recorded four service aces including three from Ashley Chamberlin.
 
With the score level at 21-21, Notre Dame (MD) went on to win the final four points of the set to take a 2-0 lead heading into the third set. The Gators' Kayleigh Davis capped off the set with consecutive kills off assists from Jamie Reyes.
 
The Highlanders again jumped out to an early lead in the third set leading 8-3 thanks to a pair of service aces from Brie Norton – in total the Highlanders recorded 14 aces, their most in a match since a 15-ace performance on Oct. 28, 2015 against Rosemont.
 
The advantage in the third set would be short-lived as the Gators went on an 8-0 run to take a lead they would not give back. After Cairn won two points to close to within one at 11-10, the Gators went on a second 8-0 to take a 19-10 advantage.
 
The two teams traded points until a service error on the Highlanders ended the set (25-14) and the match, giving Notre Dame (MD) a 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-14) victory.
 
The win for the Gators improves them to 8-1 overall and 2-0 in the CSAC while the loss for the Highlanders drops them to 0-4 in the conference and 1-8 overall.
 
Cairn will next take the court on Saturday morning when the Highlanders host Penn State – Harrisburg at 11:00 a.m. in the Mason Activity Center.