ALLIANCE, Ohio – Earlham College volleyball opened its 2019 season with a pair of losses during Friday's opening day of the Mount Union Invitational, dropping a 3-0 (25-20, 25-15, 25-19) decision to Muskingum University, followed by a 3-0 (25-13, 25-22, 25-14) loss to Mount Vernon Nazarene University at UMU's McPherson Academic and Athletic Complex.

Junior pin hitter Julia Stewart paced Earlham with 11 kills on 30 swings (.200 Att%) in the day's first match against Muskingum, leading a Quaker squad that hit .097 for the match. Sophomore outside Caroline Mulvihill tacked on seven terminations on her 21 attacks (.238), while Abbey Zanatta, Giselle Mora, and Sarah Dickman each added five kills.

Senior setter Lauren Jackson tallied 30 assists, while senior Sydney Ameluxen turned up 23 digs.

Muskingum hit .217 for the match and was an efficient 65 percent on sideouts (36-55). Maddie McGee led the Fighting Muskies with nine kills, while three other players had eight apiece.

Stewart again paced Earlham in the day's second match against Mount Vernon Nazarene, amassing 10 kills against just three errors on 33 swings for a .212 hitting percentage. Dickman charted nine terminations on 30 attacks against MVNU, but as a team the Quakers hit just .056 versus the Cougars.

Jackson logged 17 assists versus MVNU, and Ameluxen finished with 22 digs.

MVNU's Nicole Winkler and Ashley Stumperth finished with 12 and 10 kills respectively, leading a Cougar squad that hit .250 for the match. The Cougars had 70 digs to the Quakers' 55, and tallied 4.5 blocks to Earlham's one.

Earlham wraps up play at the 2019 Mount Union Invitational on Saturday, Aug. 31, with matches against Brockport State, N.Y. (12:00 p.m.) and Mount Union (2:00 p.m.).