United States Merchant Marine Academy

BRONXVILLE, N.Y. (Oct. 21, 2026) – In a matchup between the Skyline Conference's final two unbeaten teams, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy women's volleyball team came up just short in a five-set battle at Sarah Lawrence on Wednesday night, falling 17-25, 25-14, 15-25, 25-19 and 15-12 at the Gryphons' Campbell Sports Center. The Mariners moved to 17-3 (8-1 Skyline) in defeat, while the SLC improved to 20-2 (6-0 Skyline) with the victory.
 
Match File

• Box Score 

Two players recorded double-doubles for the Mariners, as freshman Candy Saz-Price (Cabot, Ark.) led Merchant Marine with 12 kills and added 11 digs and classmate Miranda Zeng (Cupertino, Calif.) handed out 37 assists, recorded 12 digs and served two aces.
 
Junior Sydney Douglas (Herndon, Va.) finished with 11 kills, six digs and a match-high nine service aces, while freshman Sophie Phillips (Huffman, Texas) added eight kills on a .375 hitting percentage. Sophomore Adriana C. Rodríguez Fernández (San Juan, P.R.) also finished with 11 digs, three aces and four assists.
 
USMMA came out strong in the opening set, hitting .320 and gradually taking control before pulling away for the 25-17 victory. Sarah Lawrence answered immediately in the second, however, holding the Mariners to seven kills and a -.107 hitting percentage en route to a 25-14 win that evened the match.
 
Merchant Marine responded emphatically in the third. The Mariners limited Sarah Lawrence to a negative hitting percentage and built a comfortable advantage before Saz-Price closed out the 25-15 victory with a service ace, putting USMMA back in front, 2-1.
 
The Gryphons answered again in the fourth. Sarah Lawrence hit .353 in the set and created enough separation in the middle stages to force a decisive fifth with a 25-19 win.
 
Sarah Lawrence scored the first two points of the fifth and eventually built a 13-7 advantage before the Mariners made one final push. Phillips put down a kill, Zeng followed with an ace and an ensuing Sarah Lawrence attack error cut the deficit to 13-10. After the Gryphons moved within one point of the match at 14-10, Douglas answered with a kill and then served an ace to make it 14-12. Sarah Lawrence called a second timeout before Caroline Combs followed with the match-clinching kill to give SLC the 15-12 win.
 
USMMA finished with 49 kills, 16 service aces and 63 digs. The Gryphons finished with 48 kills, nine service aces and 49 digs.
 
Sarah Lawrence was led by Combs, who recorded a match-high 21 kills, while Nikolet Vataj added 16 kills. Sophia Costa handed out 40 assists for the Gryphons.
 
The Mariners are right back on the road on Friday night, Oct. 23, when they travel up to Newburgh, N.Y. to take on Mount St. Mary College beginning at 7 p.m. at the Knights' Kaplan Center.
 
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