BEREA, OHIO --  The Baldwin-Wallace College volleyball team continued its winning ways by taking a pair of matches today (Friday, September 9, 2011) on the first day of the 13th Annual Marcia French Memorial Invitational. The Invitational is being co-hosted by Baldwin-Wallace and Case Western Reserve University.  

 The Yellow Jackets defeated Carnegie Mellon 3-1 and Denison 3-0 to win their seventh straight match and improve to 7-0 on the season.

Against Carnegie Mellon, B-W took the first set by a score of 25-20. In the second set, the Tartans jumped out to a 20-10 advantage before the Yellow Jackets used a 10-0 run to tie the set at 20-20. Carnegie Mellon held on to win the set 25-22. B-W would close out the match by winning the next two sets by scores of 25-19 and 25-18.

The Yellow Jackets were led offensively by sophomore middle hitter Colleen Bonnaci (Stow/Stow-Munroe Falls) with 14 kills and four digs, junior middle hitter Rachel Switalski (North Royalton/Holy Name) with 11 and junior outside hitter Amanda Sawicki (Mentor/Lake Catholic) added 10 kills. Junior setter Jessica Stitts (Eastlake/North) led the defense with 37 digs and also ran the offense with 45 set assists. Junior defensive specialist Natalie Emmons (Ashland) contributed 24 digs.

In the match with Denison, B-W swept the Big Red in three sets by scores of 25-13, 25-12 and 25-21.

The offense was led by Stitts with 25 set assists and Sawicki with 12 kills. Bonnaci and Switalski each added six digs. Defensively, Emmons recorded 17 digs.

B-W will face Buffalo State (N.Y.) University and The College of Wooster at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. respectively on the second and final day of the tournament.  The Yellow Jackets will host their first home dual match on Wednesday, September 14 when they will take on the Terriers of Hiram College in the Ursprung Gymnasium at 7:00 p.m.

FOR MORE B-W Sports Information, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest B-W athletics information at www.bw.edu/athletics and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.