NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – The Niagara Purple Eagles swept the Quinnipiac Bobcats, 25-18, 25-18, 25-20, on Saturday for their fourth win in their last five matches.

"Our team had a nice outing today," head coach Vilis Ozols said. "We had a very efficient serving game with 11 aces and that set up a lot of the good things that happened. Rayenne Hale had another wonderful game as did Nicole (Matheis) and Alex (Stone) compliments of Alexis' (Gray) setting. We also had some spectacular digs that made for excitement for the fans." 

The freshman class had a significant impact in today's match. Rayenne Hale led the match in kills with 12 and in aces with a career-best four, while her .611 hitting percentage is a season-high by a Purple Eagle. Alexis Gray led the match with 32 assists while adding nine digs, and Rylee Hunt had a match-best 13 digs for her 16th match in double figures.  

Niagara (8-11, 4-4 MAAC) had 11 aces in the match, which are a season-high against a MAAC opponent, with seven coming in the opening set. With the set tied at 12-12, Hale had back-to-back aces to push NU forward as it went on to claim the set, 25-18.

NU never trailed in the second set. Up 11-10, NU would score 10 of the next 15 points to force two Quinnipiac timeouts. Hale would score the last three points for Niagara to close out the set, 25-18. The Purple Eagles had a similar spurt in the third set with the score tied at 11-11. A kill by Hale started an 8-3 run as NU coasted to a 25-20 third set win to improve to 5-0 all-time against the Bobcats (2-19, 0-9 MAAC). The Purple Eagles have swept their last two matches for the first time since having four straight sweeps in Nov. 2011.

NU continues its homestand on Sunday at 1 p.m. against the Fairfield Stags.