BOX SCORE 1 | BOX SCORE 2 SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Senior Saitaua Iosia had a combined 36 kills to lead the Towson University volleyball team to a sweep of its two matches on Saturday at the Hampton Inn-vitational hosted by Bryant University. The Tigers defeated Army 3-0 and followed it with a 3-0 victory over Bryant and improved to 3-0 on the year.

"We played well as a team today," said Tiger Head Coach Don Metil. "It's always hard to play back-to-back matches and our girls did a great job of playing our game. We controlled the tempo, played aggressive defense at the net as well as the back court and we improve in serve/receive as both matches progressed.

"Great opening weekend for the Tigers as we prepare to defend our home court next weekend," added Metil.

One of the keys throughout the weekend for the Tigers was strong hitting and holding their opponents to a low number. Towson hit .372 against Army and held the Black Knights to a .179 percentage. Against Bryant the Tiger hit .235 while holding the Bulldogs to a .048 hitting percentage.

Leading by three in the first set against Army, the Tigers used a 10-4 run to open up an 18-9 lead. Highlighting that run was a pair of kills from senior Victoria Williams and junior Haley Pa'akaula. Towson pushed its advantage to 23-12 on another kill from Williams. The Tigers closed out the first set 25-16 on a kill from Williams. The second set saw the Tigers trailing the Black Knights 12-9 before a 10-3 run gave Towson a 19-15 lead. Sophomore Lindsay Flaherty had a pair of service aces while Iosia recorded a pair of kills. The Tigers went on to close out the set 25-21 on a kill from Williams. The third set was the most closely contested as the two teams battled through 11 ties before Towson claimed the 25-23 win and the 3-0 victory in the match.

Iosia had 16 kills, hit .467 and added nine digs to lead the Tigers in the match. Williams contributed 10 kills while hitting .471 while redshirt junior Aimee Schubert recorded the "double-double" with 33 assists and 13 digs.

Amber Clay had nine kills to lead Army while Vanessa Edwards dished out 21 assists.

Towson got off to a quick start against Bryant as the Tigers opened up a 17-9 advantage in the first set. The Bulldogs cut it to 19-14 before a Towson timeout. The Tigers scored five of the final seven points to secure the 25-16 set victory. In the second set, the Tigers again got out to an early lead as an Iosia kill put Towson up 15-8. A service ace from senior Paige Sekerak increased the Towson lead to 23-14 in the set. A service error by Bryant gave the Tigers a 25-17 win and a 2-0 lead in the match. The third set was again a tight one as there were seven ties. With the set tied at 20-20, the Tigers got a combined three kills from Iosia and Flaherty and a block from the pair to close out the 25-21 win and victory in the match.

Iosia led the Tigers with a season-high 20 kills and six digs while Schubert recorded her second "double-double" of the day with 26 assists and 13 digs. Sekerak recorded her first career "double-double" with 11 digs and 10 assists. Pa'akaula added eight kills and 12 digs.

Vika Nesterov led Bryant with 15 assists and seven digs while Debora Magalhaes had 16 digs.

Towson returns to action on Friday, Sept. 5 when it returns home to host the Towson Invitational. The Tigers face St. Peter's on Friday evening at 7 p.m. as part of the six matches.