Strong offense carried the Aquinas women's volleyball team to a 3-1 decision in the 2019 season-opening victory over Saint Xavier (Ill.) in Grand Rapids on Tuesday night (Aug. 27). #16 AQ only had trouble with the visiting Cougars in the second set, winning by scores of 25-10, 24-26, 25-12, and 25-15 in the home opener in the Sturrus Center.

As a team, Aquinas (1-0) hit .330 with 43 kills and just 12 errors in the match, which included a 13-kill, zero-error first frame in which the home Saints hit .650 overall. Defensively, AQ limited Saint Xavier (0-1) to a -0.019 hitting percentage in the match with just 27 kills and 29 errors. In two of the four sets, the Cougars hit negative and only tallied a .167 hitting percentage in their set two win.

Junior middle hitters Payton Klein and Kylie Christensen were terrific in the opener, as Klein tallied a match-best 11 kills and hit .348 to go along with six block assists. Christensen hit .563 with 10 kills and just one error in 16 attempts. She added a pair of block assists. Ally Blackford delivered nine kills, five digs, three block assists, and two service aces.

Kali Crawford provided 36 assists, seven digs, two kills, and two block assists. Maddie Ingraham picked up eight kills in just 16 attempts, while Meredith Kraus tallied six digs, four aces, three block assists and there kills.

Along with the 43-27 advantage in kills, the Saints held an 11-4 edge in aces and an 8-3 lead in total blocks. AQ also tallied more digs (46-36) and assists (40-26) than the Cougars.

Karly Morris led all players with 16 digs and a pair of aces. Allie Martin added five digs and three aces.

Aquinas had little trouble in sets one, three, and four, winning all three sets by at least 10 points.

The 2018 WHAC regular season champions, AQ is picked to win the conference title this year in the preseason poll. The Saints have a great test coming up this weekend, as they'll play four matches at the GoSarpy.com Labor Day Volleyball Classic in Bellevue, Neb.

On Friday (Aug. 30), Aquinas takes on Evangel (10:00 a.m. ET) and #20 Jamestown (4:00 p.m.). The Saints will square off with #11 Dordt (2:00 p.m.) and College of Saint Mary (6:00 p.m.) on Saturday (Aug. 31).