ASTON, Pa. – The Neumann University women's volleyball team split a pair of matches against DeSales University and Stockton University on Saturday afternoon in a tri-match.
 
Neumann dropped the first match of the day to DeSales by set scores of 25-17, 25-15 and 25-23. Melanie Malseed led the Knights with 13 kills in the match. Rachel Cray handed out 25 assists. Bianca Harbold tallied 11 digs.
 
The first set started off back and forth before the Bulldogs went on a small run to take the opening set. The Knights took early leads in the second and third sets, but DeSales battled back and won both sets to take the match 3-0.
 
In their second match of the day, the Knights defeated Stockton in four sets. Neumann won the first set 25-21. The Ospreys won set two 25-18. The Knights came back to win sets three and four both by 25-21 scores.
 
Malseed was on fire and tallied 21 kills. Rachael Hoffmann finished with 10 kills. Cray handed out 42 assists and 19 digs. Malseed also added 17 digs while Kirsten Longueira added 12.
 
All sets were close as neither team could take too much of a lead. To win the first set, Shayne Sullivan and Malseed blocked an Ospreys attempt. Malseed went on to have the clinching kills in both sets three and four to lead the Knights to the win.
 
Neumann (15-21) will be the No. 2 seed in the conference playoffs and will host a semifinal match on Thursday evening at 7:00 PM. The opponent will be determined after the first-round matches on Tuesday.