For the seventh time in the last nine matches, the Aquinas women's volleyball team played the full five sets in a match and the Saints found themselves on the wrong side of the final score on Friday night (Sept. 27). AQ nearly upset Lawrence Tech on the Blue Devils' home floor in Southfield, Mich., falling in the fifth set 15-11 to cap LTU's 3-2 victory.
 
In quite a back-and-forth affair, Aquinas went from down 1-0 to up 2-1 before Lawrence Tech bounced back to take the final two sets for the conference win. AQ fell in the contest by set scores of 16-25, 28-26, 25-20, 19-25, and 11-15. It is the eighth time in 14 matches this year that Aquinas has played five sets.
 
The Saints dropped to 5-9 overall and 2-3 in WHAC action, while Lawrence Tech improves to 11-1 on the season and 5-0 in league play. 
 
After the teams split the first four sets, LTU turned a 5-4 lead in set five to an 8-4 advantage. The lead grew to 13-8 before Aquinas responded with three points in a row to cut the deficit to a 13-11 score. After a Lawrence Tech timeout, the Blue Devils used back-to-back kills to finish the league triumph. 
 
Each team registered 56 kills on Friday, though LTU hit .212 on the night and AQ connected at a .155 clip. The Blue Devils held edges in digs (94-80), aces (10-8), and total blocks (3-2), while Aquinas was in front in assists, 45-42.
 
Jackie Rozell posted a match-high 15 kills, while Payton Klein put down 11 kills in 25 attempts. Kylie Christensen supplied nine kills and Kali Crawford totaled 43 assists, 15 digs, seven kills, and two aces. 
 
Maddie Ingraham delivered six kills, Karly Morris notched 19 digs and a pair of aces, and Sam VanHouten picked up 10 digs. Meredith Kraus supplied eight digs, two kills, and an ace, while Kenzie Sanders provided six digs, three kills, two blocks, and an ace.
 
The Saints continue their three-match week with a 1:00 p.m. match at Rochester on Saturday (Sept. 28) before returning to AQ for three home contests next week.