Staten Island, N.Y. (October 25, 2008) ?The Robert Morris University Colonials avenged their Friday afternoon loss against Hofstra with a 3-0 sweep over conference rival Wagner in the Seahawks home opener at the Spiro Sports Center. The Colonials won by set scores of 25-20, 25-19 and 25-17 in its third straight conference victory.

Robert Morris started set one in control earning 17 kills to Wagner's nine and hitting .268 to the Seahawks .118. Senior Emily Wolthuis (Byron Center, Mich. / South Christian) got the match started with a kill straight down the line. Wagner's Micaela McDonald responded with a kill of her own to tie it up 1-1.

Wagner continued to match Robert Morris kill-for-kill until the Colonials were able to pull away with the score knotted 9-9. Charla Drabant (Wheaton, Ill. / Wheaton North) put down back-to back kills to increase the Colonial lead to 13-10. From that point Robert Morris maintained the lead until the finished score of 25-20.

Wolthuis led all hitters with seven kills, while freshman Hannah Veith (Columbus, Ohio / Worthington) and Drabant each added four.

The Colonials returned to the court in set two with same amount of energy, which led them to a 25-19 victory. Robert Morris put on a serving clinic for the Seahawks, tallying seven aces in set two alone.

Once again, Wolthuis started the match off with the first kill. The freshmen duo of Veith and Alyssa Bennett (Ramona, Calif. / Ramona) each added kills of their own to increase the Robert Morris lead to 4-1. After a side-out by the Colonials, Alyssa Bennett went back to the serving line and went on a seven point run and tallied three aces in the process.

Sophomore Amanda Graham (Melbourne, Fla. / Eau Gallie) followed in Bennett's footsteps at 15-10 and served nine balls, accumulating four service aces to give Robert Morris its largest lead of the contest at 23-10.

Wagner was able to find its groove shortly after and rallied its way back to within five of the Colonials at 24-19, but the Colonial squad was able to quickly recover and senior Cassie Lee (Vista, Calif. / Vista) grabbed the set point with a kill.

Set three saw similar results, with the Colonials dominating Wagner for the majority of the set. Bennett started things off with a kill and Wagner's Stephanie Robinett evened it up with a kill of her own and then added an ace to take the 2-1 lead. However, that would be Wagner's only lead of the set.

A kill by Lee and a couple attack errors by Wagner gave the Colonials a 6-2 cushion. The Seahawks were able manage to beat the Colonial defense a couple times, but it would not be enough, as Robert Morris went on to win set three 25-17 for the match win.

Wolthuis led all hitters with 14 kills on a .323 hitting percentage, while also adding nine digs and one block.  Drabant also added nine digs, while putting down eight kills and two blocks.

Freshman Veith and Bennett each grabbed identical seven kill performances, hitting .545 and .875, respectively. Bennett also added a team high five service aces and 29 assists, while Graham contributed four service aces and two blocks.

The Robert Morris Colonials return home next Saturday, Nov. 1 to face Long Island in conference action at 1:00 p.m.