COLUMBIA, Md. – The Harford Women's Volleyball team took their first loss Sunday, falling to the Community College of Rhode Island in the semifinals of the Dragon Invitational. The Fighting Owls defeated the College of Southern Maryland and Brookdale before being eliminated in the penultimate match.
 
Harford 1, Rhode Island 3
Having already played a pair of five-setters, the Harford (6-1) came up a couple points short of forcing a third in the semifinals against Rhode Island (7-2). The Fighting Owls dropped the first two sets, 25-19 and 25-21, and won the third 25-19 to stay alive. Set four was as tight as it could get but the Knights edged it out 28-26 to hand Harford with their first loss of the season.
 
Mary Snow led the Fighting Owls attack with 16 kills and a pair of blocks. Savannah Meyers was solid as well with 11 kills and four block solos. Hannah Roussey led the team with 35 assists while Rebekah Hanshaw led the team with 43 digs.
 
Harford 3, Southern Maryland 2
Harford and Southern Maryland opened the day with a five set thriller in group play. The teams traded sets with Harford winning sets one, three and five, 25-22, 25-21 and 15-10 respectively, while Southern Maryland took sets two and four, 25-21 and 25-20.
 
Julia Gatch and Jenna Hathazi had 13 and 12 kills, respectively, to lead the Fighting Owls' offense. Hathazi had a two blocks to go along with 13 digs as well. Snow had a dominant match at the net, totaling eight blocks including six solos. She also had eight kills and a service ace.
 
Harford 3, Brookdale 0
In their second match of the day, Harford was dominant, defeating Brookdale in straight sets, 25-19, 25-16 and 25-17. Myers had another strong match, picking up seven kills and three block solos. In the tournament, the freshman acculated 44 kills and 20 total blocks. Meyers matched Snow with seven kills as well, while Roussey had 22 assists with no handling errors as the primary setter.
 
Overall, Harford went 4-1 in the tournament. A win in the semifinals would have propelled them into the finals for a rematch with hosts Howard who the defeated 3-2 earlier in the week. Howard would go on to defeat Rhode Island in the final to win the tournament.
 
Harford will be on the road for the next two weeks beginning with a conference clash with Chesapeake on Wednesday. The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.