The #25 Aquinas women's volleyball team shook off some early rust to earn a 3-0 sweep of visiting Siena Heights on Thursday (Apr. 1) at the Sturrus Center. On Senior Night for the team's seven seniors, the home Saints notched wins of 25-21, 25-16, and 25-21 in their regular season finale.
In AQ's first match in more than two weeks, the Saints got back in the swing of things with their 13th sweep of the season. Overall, Aquinas is now 19-2 on the year and 12-2 in conference play. Siena Heights drops to 8-8 overall and the same 8-8 record in WHAC action.
One of seven seniors playing their final match,
Kylie Christensen put down a match-high 12 kills and did not commit an error, hitting .400 in the win.
Payton Klein recorded six kills, seven digs, and four aces, while
Kali Crawford neared a double-double with 32 assists and nine digs. Crawford picked up her 2,000th career assist late in the victory.
Meredith Kraus,
Samee Teachworth, and
Emily Jones added five kills each, with Jones collecting four block assists. Staying on the defensive side,
Adrien Yondo recorded 18 digs,
Sam VanHouten picked up 14, and
Kenzi Dobosiewicz added a dozen.
Siena Heights looked to be in control at 18-12 in set one before a Klein kill gave AQ the ball and Yondo served seven straight points for the Saints. Leading 22-20, Christensen put down the final three kills of the set for AQ in the 25-21 victory.
The visiting Saints led 9-3 in set two before a 6-0 run behind strong serving from Klein, which featured a pair of aces. Siena Heights went back in front 12-10 but AQ responded with a 9-1 run, including three Christensen kills, one from Teachworth, and a solo block and a kill from Crawford. A pair of late kills from Kraus gave the Saints a 25-16 win.
AQ led set three 9-3 and would hold a comfortable advantage for the rest of the set to clinch the home sweep and move to 7-1 at the Sturrus Center this year. The victory was also the 300th career win for second-year head coach
Ryan Campbell during his 12-year head coaching career.
Aquinas notched a 40-28 edge in kills and hit .195 to just .047 for SHU. The home Saints held slight leads in digs (67-64), aces (6-4), and assists (35-24). Both teams recorded five blocks.
The Saints, currently the #2 seed in the WHAC standings, are in line to host a first round WHAC Tournament match on Tuesday night (Apr. 6) at 7:00 p.m. The opponent has yet to be determined.
