KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN – The Baldwin-Wallace College volleyball team won a pair of matches today (Friday, September 2, 2011) on the first day of the Kalamazoo College Hornet Classic.  The Yellow Jackets are now 2-0 overall and play a pair of matches tomorrow (Sept. 3) against Anderson (Ind.) College at 10:00 a.m. and North Park (Ill.) University at 2:00 p.m.

In today's first match versus Kalamazoo (Mich.) College, B-W won 3-2, by scores of 25-13, 25-16, 19-25, 19-25, and 15-12. The Yellow Jackets finished the first day of the tournament with a 3-0 victory against Franklin (Ind.) College in the nightcap and by the scores of 25-11, 25-19, 25-9.

In the victory against host Kalamazoo, the Yellow Jacket front line was led by junior transfer outside hitter Amanda Sawicki (Mentor/ Lake Catholic via Marietta College) with 16 kills in 33 attempts for a .464 hitting percentage. She also had four defensive digs and a solo block. In addition, junior All-OAC middle hitter Rachel Switalski (North Royalton/Holy Name) had seven kills and sophomore MH Colleen Bonacci (Stow/ Stow-Munroe Falls) had six. 

The offense was set up by junior setter Jessica Stitts (Eastlake/North) as she had 26 set assists, six service aces, nine digs and a pair of kills. Also, sophomore Jessica Deleur (Olmsted Falls) had four set assists and was second on the team with 16 digs.  The defense was led by junior libero Natalie Emmons (Ashland) with 29 digs. Sophomore OH/DS Taylor Burns (Tiffin/Fostoria St. Wendelin) had 13 digs, five service aces and a kill.

In the win versus Franklin, B-W hit an amazing .500 in the three-game match. Sawicki and Bonacci led the way with 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Bonacci hit .714 and Sawicki hit .571. Stitts again set up her players for 25 set assists and had six digs, five kills and a block. Emmons had the most digs with 17 and Bonacci the most blocks with two assisted.

Following its two matches tomorrow, the Yellow Jackets will and be back in action on Wednesday, Sept. 7 when they travel to South Euclid, Ohio to play Notre Dame College in the Keller Center at 7:00 p.m.  Next Friday, Sept. 9-10, B-W will host the Annual Marcia French Memorial Tournament in Berea.  The Yellow Jackets are in action at 4:00 p.m. versus Carnegie Mellon (PA.) University and at 8:00 p.m. versus Denison University.  On Saturday, B-W plays at 10:00 a.m. against Buffalo State (NY.) College and at 1:00 p.m. versus The College of Wooster.

FOR MORE B-W SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact SID Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu and Assistant SID Jeff Miller by telephone at 440-826-2780 and e-mail 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.