PHOENIX – The Niagara Purple Eagles concluded play at the Grand Canyon Invitational by splitting a pair of matches on Saturday.

Charleston Southern 2, Niagara 3

Niagara held off Charleston Southern in five sets, 26-24, 25-21, 18-25, 18-25, 15-10. The Purple Eagles won the first two sets and showed mental toughness to win the match after having it go five sets.

Melissa McGwin led the Purple Eagles with 15 kills which are the most by a Purple Eagle this season and her most since having 16 kills against Temple on Aug. 31, 2013. Rylee Hunt shared match-high honors with 23 digs, while three of her teammates picked up double-doubles in the win. Alexis Gray had 39 assists and 13 digs, Nicole Matheis had 11 kills and 22 digs and Rayenne Hale had 10 kills and 12 digs.

The Purple Eagles served their way past the Buccaneers behind a season-high 11 aces. Their serving game proved pivotal as they served out the final four points of the match, including consecutive aces by Gray to end the match.

The opening set had seven ties and four lead changes in which the Purple Eagles were able to pull out. With the set tied at 24-24, an ace by Taylor Kells put Niagara up 25-24 and a kill by Matheis clinched the set. The Purple Eagles never trailed in the second set, collecting 15 kills, on their way to a 2-0 set lead. However, the Buccaneers stormed back and tied the match at 2-2 by winning the third and fourth sets.

"The team came out strong and executed well to close out sets one and two," head coach Vilis Ozols said. "Then, they did a great job of pulling out the match after Charleston Southern's rally.  Meaghan Higley keyed the win with timely serving and setting coming in off the bench and Rylee Hunt has been a huge defensive star at crunch time."

Niagara 0, Grand Canyon 3

The Purple Eagles (3-7) fell in straight sets to the host Grand Canyon, 25-21, 25-19, 25-14, on Saturday to wrap up play in the invitational.

"We played well and competed hard with GCU," Ozols said. "I felt as the match wore on that fatigue impacted our crispness. Our players will sleep well after four full matches in two days. We had strong efforts from our middles and Rylee (Hunt) had another outstanding weekend of play."

Hunt led the team with 12 digs to continue her streak of double-digit digs to start the season. Gray had her team-leading fourth double-double of the season with 22 assists and 10 digs. Alex Stone and McGwin shared team-high honors with eight kills.

The Purple Eagles will have their home opener next weekend when they host conference foe Fairfield on Saturday, September 19 at 1 p.m.

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