PHOENIXVILLE, Pa.- While it wasn't the opening day that the Valley Forge Christian College women's volleyball team had hoped for, losing in a fifth set heart-breaker to Christendom College and in three sets to a powerful Keystone College, the Lady Patriots continue to see improvement all around.

The Lady Patriots played an exciting yet disappointing five-set match against Christendom College.  The Patriots took the second and fourth set, capitalizing on their serving aces and blocks at the net.  Christendom took the first and third set, catching the host team out of system on multiple occasions.  Christendom won the coin toss to have first serve in the fifth set and scored six points right away off their best server.  The Patriots tried to catch up with only 15 points the win the match; they had little room for error and lost with a final score of 8-15.

In the second match of the day against Keystone College, the Patriots played three long sets but lost the match, 18-25, 15-25 and 13-25.  The ladies were unable to get to their offense going at the net, making 77 attempts but killing just 11 hits.  Defensively, the Patriots were strong, but unable to finish off the ball, their opponent had multiple attempts to find the holes on the floor.

"Courtney Farabee played an excellent game.  She anchored the back row, allowing nothing to hit the floor around her and coming away with just four receiving errors for the day!  Each competition we continue to grow more as a team and I am proud of that," Stated Head Coach Amanda Gauthier.

Courtney Farabee earned 33 digs for the day.

Katie Clarke walked away with 11 kills, three aces, and two solo blocks.

The Lady Patriots travel to Washington, D.C. to play against host school Trinity Washington University on Tuesday, September 10.  The game is scheduled to start at 7 pm.

Go Patriots!!