The Aquinas women's volleyball team extended its winning streak to three matches in a row, as the home Saints battled back on Friday night (Oct. 4) to take down visiting Siena Heights in a five-set battle in the Sturrus Center. AQ fell behind 2-1 in the match, but rallied to dominate set four and scored 13 of the final 16 points in the fifth set to notch the big home victory.

It was an up-and-down match overall, with Aquinas rolling to easy victories in the first and fourth sets, but SHU winning closely in the second and third frames. AQ earned the victory by scores of 25-13, 20-25, 22-25, 25-15, and 15-7. In the Saints' 17th match of the year, it was the ninth time Aquinas has played the full five sets. After losing their first three five-set matches of the year, the Saints are 3-3 over their most recent six five-setters.

AQ improves to 5-3 in WHAC play and 8-9 overall this season, while Siena Heights drops to 4-10 overall and 2-6 in league action. The nearly two-hour victory on Friday comes on the heels of consecutive 3-0 sweeps over Rochester and UM-Dearborn.

After jumping ahead 19-7 in set four and cruising to the 25-15 win, AQ fell behind in the fifth frame, 4-2. Three straight SHU errors and an ace from Olivia Martinelli gave the home Saints a 6-4 lead they would not relinquish. Maddie Ingraham put down back-to-back kills and Kali Crawford added a third in a row for the 9-5 advantage. The lead grew to 13-7 when Meredith Kraus and Jackie Rozell finished off the visitors with consecutive kills and the come-from-behind victory.

Aquinas dominated every statistical category, including a large discrepancy on offense; kills were 61-40 in AQ's favor, while the Saints hit .225 and held SHU to an .081 attack clip. The home Saints also led in assists (57-37), aces (9-4), digs (73-65), and total blocks (8.5 to 6.0).

Five Aquinas players put away eight or more kills, with Rozell leading the way with a match-best 15 kills and three blocks. Payton Klein added 14 kills and hit .344, while recording match-highs of six total blocks and three service aces. Ingraham posted 11 kills, including six crucial kills in the final two sets.

Kylie Christensen did not commit an error on her 19 swings, hitting .474 with nine kills. Crawford neared a triple-double with 43 assists, 13 digs, and eight kills. Karly Morris picked up a season-best 32 digs, the sixth time this season she has eclipsed the 20-dig plateau. She also added 10 assists for the double-double.

Sam VanHouten picked up nine digs and Kraus supplied four kills and three blocks. Both Kenzie Sanders and Ally Blackford served a pair of aces.

Aquinas closes out the three-match homestand on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 5) in a 1:00 p.m. contest against Lourdes.