BALTIMORE, Md. - The Towson University volleyball team earned a pair of victories on Saturday to capture the Battle of Baltimore Tournament title. The Tigers (8-1) defeated UMBC and Loyola, winning each match by a 3-0 margin.

Aubrey Kirven was named the MVP of the Battle of Baltimore Tournament while teammate I'ishah Keliikoa was named to the all-tournament team. This marks the third straight year the Tigers have captured the Battle of Baltimore Tournament.

"I'm pleased with the way we played for the majority of the weekend," said Coach Bruce Atkinson. "We still had some up and down moments but overall I thought we continued to work to get better at the things we noticed in practice. Hopefully this will help us be ready for conference play."

In the first set against UMBC, Katy Buck and Marta Machos had four kills apiece to lead the Tigers to a 25-21 victory. In the second set, the two squads battled through 10 ties and seven lead changes before Towson was able to post the 25-23 win. The Tigers hit .294 in the third set to post a 25-19 victory and earn the win in the match.

Buck led the Tigers in the match with nine kills and five digs while Kirven contributed 28 assists, six digs and four kills. Susan Gansor had four kills and four blocks and Paige Sekerak finished with 11 digs. Machos posted seven kills for the Tigers.

Hannah Schmidt finished with 12 kills to lead UMBC in the match. Alexandria Spaay dished out 22 assists for the Retrievers while Ali Goc added nine digs.

Against Loyola (2-5), the Tigers had another strong hitting performance as they finished the match with 53 kills and a .379 hitting percentage. Keliikoa hit .556 with six kills in the first set to lead the Tigers to a 25-18 victory and a 1-0 lead in the match. Towson hit .522 in the second set and received five kills from Buck en route to a 25-16 win. Buck and Gansor combined for 12 kills in the third set to lead Towson to a 25-23 victory and a win in the match.

Buck was one of three Tigers to record double-digit kills in the match as she finished with 15 and added six digs. Keliikoa hit .500 in the contest and posted 12 kills. Gansor contributed 10 kills and three solo blocks while Kirven had 44 assists. Sekerak posted 13 digs for the Tigers.

Tina Catanach led Loyola with 10 kills while Lauren Anderson finished with 25 assists.

Towson puts its seven match win streak to the test on Tuesday, September 6 when it hosts Morgan State at 7 p.m. in the Towson Center.

- TOWSONTIGERS.COM -