On Friday evening, the Alma College Volleyball team hit the highway south to South Bend, Indiana to take on MIAA opponent Saint Mary's College. In an important match in terms of the MIAA standings, the Scots defeated the Belles 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-20).

With the win, Alma is now 10-12 overall on the season and 5-4 in the MIAA, while Saint Mary's fell to 4-5 in the league and 7-8 in 2014.

"I thought the team played consistent and together this evening," said Scots Head Coach Sarah Dehring. "Of course we made errors, but we played together and held each other to a higher standard of play."

Over the course of the entire match, Alma trailed just twice - at 1-0 in set two and 4-3 in set three. Other than those two times, the Scots held the advantage but none of the three sets were a blowout.

In set one, the Scots led start to finish and after being down the initial point in the second set, Alma found themselves ahead 5-1. Their biggest advantage was 14-8 but SMC would cut the lead to one point six different times. Ultimately, Alma prevailed 25-23.

In the third and deciding set, after the Belles took the early one point lead, Alma went on a consistent run that saw them take and stretch a lead to 21-15. The Scots would then close out the match with the final 25-20 decision.

So. OH/DS Sasha Laykova (Ternopil, Ukraine/Forest Hills Northern) paced the Scots with 16 digs, nine kills and three service aces, while Jr. OH/DS Hannah Guilford (Hartland/Hartland) added 12 digs and six kills. So. S Mary Dulzo (Novi/Mercy) had a team-high 33 assists and added four digs.

In addition, So. DS/L Molly Lark (Middleville/Thornapple-Kellogg) had 13 digs and So. MH/OH Madison Smith (Westphalia/Pewamo-Westphalia) contributed nine kills in the victory.

Alma will host Adrian College and Heidelberg University in a tri-match on Saturday at Art Smith Arena. The Scots and Bulldogs will play at 11:00 a.m. followed by Adrian-Heidelberg at 1:00 p.m. Alma and the Berg will finish the day with a 3:00 p.m. match.