The Aquinas women's volleyball team split a pair of home contests on Wednesday (Oct. 13) in the Sturrus Center, as the Saints swept visiting Grace Christian before dropping a hard-fought five-set battle against WHAC foe Concordia. After AQ and the Cardinals split the first four sets, CUAA outlasted the Saints in the decisive fifth set, 15-12. Wednesday's split leaves Aquinas at 14-11 overall and 5-5 in WHAC play. 
 
In the non-conference sweep of Grace Christian (6-11 overall), the Saints won handedly by scores of 25-23, 25-18, and 25-20. Naturally, AQ led in every category, including kills (36-26), hitting percentage (.184 to .039), assists (36-23), aces (10-4), digs (51-46), and total blocks (10-2).
 
Kaylin Poole led Aquinas with a rarely-seen triple-double, as she put up a team-high 12 digs, a match-best 11 kills, and 11 assists. She hit .276 and recorded three block assists. Jordyn Carlyle added seven kills in just 10 swings and picked up five digs, while Brenna Poole supplied five kills and three block assists. 
 
Claire Phillips collected five block assists and four kills, while Melissa Beachnau tallied four block assists and three kills. Cassie Sustrich led AQ with 13 assists and two aces. Jennifer Johnson picked up nine digs and served up four aces. Jenna Berens and Peyton Goschka each recorded eight digs.
 
Against Concordia (10-10 overall, 6-4 WHAC), the teams alternated wins in the first four sets: the Cardinals won sets one (25-14) and three (25-22), while the Saints responded with wins in sets two (25-18) and four (25-19). The fifth set was tied at 7-7 before CUAA used a 5-1 run to open a 12-8 cushion. AQ pulled within a point at 13-12, but back-to-back Cardinal kills finished off the victory.
 
Aquinas (.184) hit at a better clip than Concordia (.106), but the Cardinals recorded 54 kills to 49 for AQ. The Saints held a massive 18-6 edge in total blocks, though CUAA led in the other categories, including assists (49-44), digs (75-69), and aces (8-3). Both teams committed nine service errors.
 
Meredith Kraus paced AQ with a double-double of 15 kills and 12 digs, adding three block assists and a .275 hitting percentage. Jackie Rozell posted 13 kills, five digs, and three rejections, while Abbie Harpenau notched eight kills and five total blocks.
 
Libero Adrien Yondo picked up a career-high 25 digs and late in the match collected the 1,000th dig of her career. Chloe Mitchell handed out 27 assists and Abbi Perkins registered nine total blocks and five kills. Emily Jones tallied eight block assists and six kills, while Sustrich chipped in 10 assists, five block assists, and four digs.
 
The Saints return to the court on Friday (Oct. 15) in Fort Wayne, Ind. against Indiana Tech at 7:00 p.m.