The Aquinas women's volleyball team traveled to Sylvania, Ohio to take on the Gray Wolves of Lourdes in a huge WHAC showdown on Friday night (Mar. 5). The Saints were able to earn the big five-set triumph over Lourdes by set scores of 25-20, 23-25, 19-25, 25-14, and 15-9.
The Saints and the Gray Wolves battled hard all five sets as the two teams shared 28 tie scores and 16 lead changes in the match. Aquinas grabbed the first set before Lourdes bounced back taking the next to sets to go up 2-1. AQ hit just .025 and .026 as a team in those two sets.
Aquinas rallied back, dominating the fourth set, hitting .379 as a team and tallying 14 kills. The Gray Wolves and Saints kept alternating points to start the fifth set. With the score tied at 7-7, two back-to-back kills by Jackie Rozell forced Lourdes to a timeout.
An error by the Gray Wolves and two more kills from AQ (Emily Jones and Kylie Christensen) led Lourdes to take their second and final timeout of the set. A 3-2 scoring finish by the Saints clinched the fifth set win by a score of 15-9. AQ totaled 11 kills and hit .429 in the final set. Aquinas advances to 13-1 overall and 7-1 in the WHAC. Lourdes moves to 3-7 overall and 3-6 in conference play.
Rozell led the Saints with 14 kills, hitting a .250 percentage. Rozell also notched her career-high 19 digs and added a pair of block assists in the match. Payton Klein totaled 11 kills and three service aces. Klein was huge defensively as she tallied eight digs, two solo blocks, and two block assists.
Adrien Yondo neared her career-high in digs, posting 21 in tonight's match. Yondo also added a pair of service aces. This week's WHAC setter of the week, Kali Crawford, dished out 38 assists and had four kills. Crawford also recorded two service aces, two block assists, and 12 digs.
Jones finished with 10 kills and four total blocks while Christensen added eight kills and six digs. Samee Teachworth had another great performance at the net, totaling four kills and six total blocks. Kenzi Dobosiewicz posted 10 digs for the Saints.
Aquinas outperformed the Gray Wolves on the stat sheet in tonight's contest grabbing the advantage in kills (51-45) and service aces (12-10). The Saints were outstanding on the defensive end finishing with 12 team blocks to the Gray Wolves' four block total. AQ also tallied 83 digs to Lourdes' 77 total.
The Saints are back in action again tomorrow (Mar. 6) as they travel to Rochester Hills, Michigan to face Rochester and #17 Bethel in two huge matchups. First service against the Warriors of Rochester is set for 4:00 PM.
