The Aquinas women's volleyball team concluded play at the GoSarpy.com Labor Day Volleyball Classic in Bellevue, Neb. on Saturday (Aug.31).
Aquinas beat a very tough College of Saint Mary team in straight sets, 3-0, by scores of 25-17, 25-18 and 25-16. AQ is now 2-3 on the season while the College of Saint Mary falls to 10-3.
The Saints had a 43-33 advantage in kills as well as a huge offensive advantage in hitting percentage with a .337 mark compared to the Flames .054. Aquinas had a large advantage in blocks with 12 compared to one as well as the lead in assists (36-31) while Saint Mary had an advantage in digs at 51-43 and aces at 4-1.
Kylie Christensen was the leader in kills for AQ with 10 and was second in blocks with seven.
Meredith Kraus was the block leader for the Saints with nine and added seven digs.
Kali Crawford had the most assists with 31 while
Karly Morris had the most digs with 11.
Payton Klein had eight kills and four blocks while
Maddie Ingraham had eight kills and
Allie Martin added eight digs.
AQ lost the first match in five sets to #11 Dordt in an exciting five set shootout. The Saints won the first set 25-19, lost the second 21-25, won the third to go up two sets to one by a score of 25-22, lost the fourth set 25-21 and fell in the fifth set 17-15.
Saturday afternoon's first match was the third consecutive match for the Saints against a formidable opponent in the early season tournament. Dordt improved to 6-1 on the season. AQ was defeated by Evangel and Jamestown by 3-0 scores on Friday.
AQ had the advantage in blocks with nine compared to seven for Dordt; the team also had a 10-9 edge in aces. The Defenders (69 kills) had an advantage offensively against the Saints (61 kills) but the Saints were close in terms of hitting percentage (.216) compared to Dordt's (.230) in addition to close marks in assists (52-62) and digs (75-79).
Ally Blackford led Aquinas in kills with 16 and led the game in aces with six while adding five blocks. Christensen had 15 kills while Klein had 10. Christensen and Klein had five blocks to lead the team.
Morris had the most digs for the team with 20 while Crawford had 15 digs along with a team leading 43 assists. Morris also added four assists. Martin was third in digs with 13.
The Saints are back in action on Friday, September 6th at 4:00 PM. They will face Thomas More and Indian Wesleyan in a doubleheader at the Sturrus Center in the Aquinas/Cornerstone Invitational.
