The Owls kicked off the 2015 Profs Invitational volleyball tournament earlier Friday with a tough loss to Immaculata. Bryn Mawr took the first set with a dominating performance, but the Mighty Macs came back from the deficit to ultimately take a 3-1 (20-25, 26-24, 25-6, 25-23) victory. Allie Nagelski and Noemi Moreno each put in a solid defensive effort once again, leading the Owls with 16 digs each. Zoe Holman also had a great performance with 11 digs and 25 assists.

The first set against Immaculata started out on very close fashion, but Bryn Mawr (0-2) began to pull away midway through the set. The Owls tied things at 7-7 thanks to a ball handling error by Immaculata (2-0), then went from there to open a 16-11 lead. Alexandra Nagelski and Megan Kilmer both recorded service aces in that run, and senior Sarah Gates racked up four kills in that run alone. Immaculata tried to put together a rally and get back in the set, and four straight points made it tight at 16-15 once again. However, head coach Nicole Reiley used a timeout to help the Owls regain their composure, and the team ran away with the set from then on. Caroline Cosby netted a kill, and then Holman rang up two service aces in a row. Fittingly, the set ended on another of Gates' match-leading 14 kills as Bryn Mawr took the opener 25-19.

The second set went similar to the first in that it was a very tight affair. The Owls found themselves down 9-15, but after a run of play that included several kills from both Cosby and Moreno, it was suddenly an 18-all set. Nagelski picked a perfect time for an ace, giving the Owls their first lead of the frame, and the teams swapped points from there until it was 23-22. Immaculata then finally broke through and won two points in a row to give themselves set point. Bryn Mawr got a brief reprieve thanks to an attacking error, but the Mighty Macs went on to win the next two points and draw back to level with a 26-24 set victory.

The third set went south from the beginning for the Owls, and they only managed four kills in the frame. Immaculata, meanwhile, posted an absurd .636 attack percentage and made no errors in the set, ultimately racing away to a 25-6 in the frame. Bryn Mawr would have to win the fourth set if they were to get a chance at winning the match, and things started out swimmingly thanks to another ace from Holman. However, Immaculata scored the next ten points and before they knew it, the Owls found themselves down 10-1. Bryn Mawr did a great job of responding to that deficit, however. Down six, Gates nailed down three kills, and two Immaculata errors made it 22-23. After a kill from the Mighty Macs, the Owls staved off the first set point and got to 23-24 thanks to another attack error, but ultimately, Immaculata hung on for the 25-23 win to clinch the match.

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The Owls followed that up with yet another tough early season test against a team out of the New Jersey Athletic Conference. Although Bryn Mawr tried to put up a good fight, there was simply no stopping the team from Kean University on this day. Bryn Mawr lost in 3-0 fashion to the Cougars, falling by scores of 25-11, 25-14, and 25-13. Noemi Moreno had a great match for the Owls, leading the way in both digs (13) and kills (6). The Cougars got 10 kills out of Brett Harper in the winning effort.

Bryn Mawr (0-3) got out to an early lead in the opening set of this evening's match, with a kill by Moreno making it a 5-4 Owls lead. However, Kean (4-0) used a 20-4 run from that point on to take a big 24-9 lead. Bryn Mawr staved off the loss for a couple of points thanks to a kill and an ace from Sarah Gates, but the Cougars took the next point on a Bryn Mawr attack error.

The second set took a similar course as the first, with Bryn Mawr hanging in to the tune of 9-11 midway through the set. However, once again Kean used a big run to take a commanding lead. Even despite kills from Caroline Cosby and Gates, the Cougars ultimately took home the second set at 25-14. The third set saw some positives for the Owls, as they put up their highest attack percentage of the match. However, the Cougars also had a very clean set themselves, only making one attack error en route to the 25-13 win and the 3-0 victory.

The Owls will get right back on the court tomorrow for the second pair of games of the invitational. Bryn Mawr will take on Michigan-Dearborn tomorrow at 11:00 AM before closing out the weekend with a match against Mount St. Vincent at 3:00 PM.