OSWEGO, NY - The Utica University volleyball team fell in its season opener to the Wheaton College (MA) Lyons, 3-1, on Friday at the Oswego State Tournament. 
 
Eleanor Cepiel (West Sand Lake, NY/Academy of Holy Names) led the team with 10 kills and 17 digs apiece while Megan Wright (Clay Center, KS/Clay Center Community) (8) and Madison Maggiore (Orangeburg, NY/Tappan Zee) (5) rounded out the team's top-three in kills. Maggiore also delivered a team best 22 assists while she, Wright and Jada Anthony (West Nyack, NY/Clarkstown South) tallied a pair of aces each. Lauren Jones (West Winfield, NY/Mount Markham) topped Utica with four blocks with Caitlyn Esposito (Haddam, CT/Haddam-Killingworth) tallying two. 
 
Wheaton totaled 59 kills on a .192 hitting percentage on the evening to Utica's 31 and .084 hit percentage. The Pioneers would, however, capitalize on 29 Lyon errors. 
 
Utica trailed 1-0 after the first set which resulted in a 25-23 Wheaton victory. In the second, the Lyons clung to a 10-7 lead before the Pioneers began to chip away. Utica capitalized on an error and followed it with a Cepiel kill and Anthony ace to even the score at 10. From there, the sides battled back and forth until they were deadlocked at 25.  A pair of Wheaton attack errors would make the difference in a 27-25 second set Utica win. 
 
However, the Lyons cleaned up in the third and fourth sets with just 12 errors combined after recording 17 after the first two sets. On the other side, Utica committed 12 errors over the final two sets to just eight over the first two as the team went down 25-18 in set three and 25-19 in the fourth to bring the match to an end. 
 
Utica (0-1, 0-0 Empire 8) will play a pair of matches on Saturday. The team will take on Marywood University at 3 p.m. before playing host team Oswego State at 5 p.m.