LORETTO, Pa. (Oct. 3, 2006) – The dark skies outside of DeGol Arena at the Stokes Athletics Center shouldn’t have affected the Saint Francis University – UMBC women’s volleyball match going on indoors.  The mood though, was equally dubious as the Retrievers downed the Red Flash 3-1 in a non-conference match-up.

In the evening’s first game, the Flash fell to the Retrievers 30-24, a contest in which they trailed wire-to-wire.  UMBC’s Ashley Oscars paced the winning effort firing a game-high six kills.  The Flash’s best answer to the Retriever offensive came in the person of Anne Roosevelt, who had six kills of her own.

UMBC started where they left off jumping out to a quick lead.  But, the Flash would rally to claim their first lead in of the match, an 11-10 advantage.  SFU maintained a slim lead until the Retrievers tied the game at 18, and gained the lead on the following play.  From that point on the Flash took control and came back for a 30-24 win to knot the series at one.

The Retrievers led the large majority of the time, despite a resilient effort by Saint Francis.  While the UMBC advantage never seemed insurmountable, the ‘Trievers consistently answered Red Flash scores and eventually put the third frame away, 30-23.

In the fourth and final game of the series, UMBC staked claim to a lead early and extended it in to a formidable advantage, eventually downing the Red Flash by a final score of 30-15.

Offensively, the Flash were relatively quiet allowing UMBC to make all the noise.  The Retrievers Ashley Oscars finished off what she started in the first game putting up a match-high 18 kills.  Her teammate Sarah Ball helped out with 12.

In fending off the Retriever’s potent offense, three Red Flash notched 15 or more digs: Lauren Parisi had 21, Kristen Buter had 17, and Anne Roosevelt had 16.

The Flash return to action on Oct. 10, 2006 when the visit Bucknell.  That game gets under way at 7 p.m.