SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Niagara Purple Eagles opened their 2017 season with a 3-1 defeat against the Patriot League Colgate Raiders in the first match of the Syracuse Tournament on Friday.

Match Summary
Niagara (0-1) bounced back to take the third set after dropping the first two sets. The Purple Eagles had their best attacking set (11 kills, .119 percentage) of the match with Nicole Matheis providing six kills. Niagara raced out to a 9-3 lead behind a 5-0 run. The Purple Eagles, then, maintained at least a two-point lead until the score was at 24-23. A service error by Colgate handed Niagara the third set win.

The Raiders used a fast start (7-1 lead) in the fourth start to seize momentum on their way to the season-opening win.

Eagle's Eye On…

• In her first collegiate match, freshman Jaycie Roberts had a double-double with a team-leading 10 kills to go along with 12 digs and a .229 attacking percentage.
• Rylee Hunt had a match-high 22 digs.
• Alexis Gray also had a double-double with 18 digs and 11 assists.
• Meghan Higley led the team with 12 assists.
• Aleksandra Steins and Jada Carrol each tied career-highs in kills with three and two, respectively.

Coach's Corner

• "Colgate is a quality team and ultimately their physicality and experience was the difference in this first match of the season for us. We fought off some early jitters and played eye-to-eye with them and so that was really encouraging. Individually, we had some really nice first match efforts from Meghan Higley setting and from Jaycie Roberts hitting. I was pleased with our defensive effort and intensity." – head coach Vilis Ozols

Up Next

• Niagara continues action in the Syracuse Tournament on Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. against the host and ending versus Grand Canyon at 5:30 p.m.

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