ALBANY, N.Y. – The Hartford volleyball team dropped its conference opener in four sets (25-19, 24-26, 25-15, 25-22) to reigning America East champion Albany on Sunday afternoon at SEFCU Arena. The Hawks were led on the afternoon by sophomore Sareeta Nethersole who completed her third straight match in double figures with 16 kills.

Nethersole was one of two Hawks who finished in double figures as older sister Kami Nethersole finished with 12 kills. Junior Lindsay Anderson also finished among the leaders with seven kills. As a team, Hartford finished the match with a .118 hitting percentage, taking 195 total attempts and connecting on 57 of them while hitting 34 errors. Sophomore setter Jackie Tamburri finished with 45 assists.

Tamburri was one of three defensive leaders, all three of which finished with double doubles. Leading the Hawks digging efforts was (Sareeta) Nethersole, who tied her season high with 20 digs and collected her team leading 11th double double. Tamburri finished the match with a season-high 19 digs gathering her ninth double double. Rounding out the defensive leaders were (Kami) Nethersole with 17 digs and Dionna Kirton with 10.

The Hawks opened the match with a kill from sophomore Kathryn Gawrych and extended that lead with a second point on a ball handling error against the Great Danes. The Great Danes managed to tie the score at three following back-to-back kills from Traci Vandegrift, but didn't manage to take a lead until later in the set.

Following the back-to-back kills from Vandergrift, the Hawks opened up their largest lead at 8-4 on a kill from (Kami) Nethersole. Albany began chipping into the lead until using a four point rally to tie the set at 15 and take an their first and only needed lead of the set 17-15 on back-to-back hitting errors against the Hawks.

Following a kill from Anderson, the Great Danes managed another run, this one equaling five points and allowing them to open up a 22-16 lead that they wouldn't look back from. The hawks were able to cut it to a four point Albany advantage before a kill from Sara Pope gave the home team the early advantage.

The second set started similar to the first, this time with Kirton collecting the opening kill before a four-point run allowed Hartford to open up a 5-2 advantage. That run include a pair of attack errors on Samantha Brostrom, as well as kills from (Sareeta) Nethersole and Anderson.

The set never saw more than a three point advantage for either team with a total of 11 ties and six lead changes before the Hawks used three-straight kills from (Kami) Nethersole to knot the match at one set apiece heading into the extended break.

Coming out of the intermission, Gawrych again opened up a set with a kill, but the Great Danes answered by taking the next two points for the first and only lead change of the match as Albany never relinquished that slim advantage.

Hartford was able to tie the set on a kill from (Sareeta) Nethersole, but the Great Danes worked to extend their lead to as much as 18-10 before Pope ended things with a kill off a feed from Gaby Whitworth.

The final set opened the same as the second set with a kill from Kirton, this time followed by an error against Albany that allowed the Hawks an early 2-0 advantage. The Hawks would hold that lead until an 8-1 run for the Great Danes a 9-4 advantage they wouldn't let go of. The Hawks managed to battle back and tie the set at 12 on an error against Pope, but Albany answered by running off three straight points regaining a 15-12 advantage.

Following a 22-18 lead for the Great Danes made possible by a Hartford hitting error, the Hawks attempted a late run that included kills from Gawrych and (Sareeta) Nethersole. That run allowed the Hawks to pull within one, 22-12, but Dunja Prgomet finished the match with two kills over the final four points to secure the league opening victory.

Hartford returns to the court on Friday night when they travel to Stony Brook University for a 7:00 p.m. match-up with the Seawolves.