HARRISONBURG, VA. - The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) volleyball team opened play in the James Madison Invitational with a 3-0 loss to Iona on Friday, dropping their contest against the Gaels 30-25, 30-22, 30-12.

UMES (1-6) took advantage of several Iona blocking errors to close within seven points of the lead in game one. The Lady Hawks reeled off four straight points behind kills by freshman Adora Luster (Woodbridge, Va.) and senior Eriel Jeffery (Highland Park, Calif.)to cut the Gael lead down to four (29-25) until a service error by Maja Baltic (Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro) ended the game at 30-25.

Sophomore Kate Smith (Carpentersville, Ill./Dundee Crown H.S.) gave the maroon and grey took their first lead of the match in game two. Likica Grceva (Natick, Mass./Natick H.S.) and Holiday Eller (Minnetonka, Minn.) added a kill each to give UMES a two point advantage at 16-14, but Iona came storming back as they scored six straight, taking the game 30-22.

The Gaels jumped to a 10-0 lead in game three before a kill by Yael Rozner (Haifa, Israel) ended the run. Iona never trailed after that and ended the game on a 5-0 run to end the contest.

Grceva had a team high six kills to go along with her game high 20 digs, while Rozner, Jeffery and Luster each added five kills. Smith added a team high 11 assists.

The Lady Hawks face George Mason in their next match, battling the Patriots at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.