Ann Arbor, Mich. – The Saints began their weekend trip to the east side of the state tonight (Oct. 28) with a road matchup against the Concordia Cardinals. Aquinas entered the match on a three-match win streak and were hopeful to make that streak four. After trading the first four sets back-and-forth, Concordia would finish the match strong and break AQ's win streak in the fifth set. CUAA won the match by set scores of 22-25, 25-22, 21-25, 25-21, and 15-8.

Aquinas is now 11-20 on the season with a 7-10 WHAC record. Concordia improves to 11-17 on the year with a 6-10 WHAC record.

AQ got out to a hot start in the first set, taking an early 4-0 lead after an ace from Jennifer Johnson, a kill from Abbi Perkins, a kill from Samee Teachworth, and a block from Teachworth and Perkins. Aquinas would keep the momentum as another 4-0 run would give the Saints a 12-5 lead and force the home side to use its first timeout early.

The visiting side would get yet another 4-0 run to take a commanding 19-8 lead. However, Concordia would make the match interesting as they would score the next 14 of 19 points to narrow the AQ lead to just two. The Saints would still close out the first set with a win after a kill by Claire Phillips to take a 25-22 victory in the first set. Brooke Nicholson, Teachworth, and Perkins continued to generate the majority of the offensive firepower for the Saints as the trio combined for 14 kills in the first set.

The second set was full of runs to start as each side would rally back-and-forth. The home side would begin to take control of the set as they mounted a 4-0 run, shortly followed by a 5-0 run to take a 15-11 lead and force AQ to use its first timeout of the set. The Cardinals would progress that lead to 19-14 and appeared to be in control of the second set.

However, a trio of errors and a couple of kills from Nicholson would get Aquinas right back into the set with the score at 21-20 in favor of Concordia. The home team would use a timeout and it would work well for them as they managed to close out the second set 25-22 despite a pair of kills from Phillips.

With the match now tied at one-to-one, Concordia continued with the momentum into the third set, taking a 13-9 lead off of a 5-2 run. A timeout would be well used by Aquinas as the Saints would go on a 3-0 run themselves, narrowing the deficit to just a point and forcing the home side to use its first timeout of the set.

The two sides would continue to battle and AQ would finally take its first lead of the set with the score at 19-18. A massive 5-0 run that featured two kills from Cassie Sustrich would all but end the set with the score at 24-19. CUAA would get a couple of points back, but Teachworth would end the set at 25-21 with a huge kill.

Despite the being down in the match, the Cardinals would continue to rally back. The home side controlled most of the action early in the fourth set and took a 13-5 lead. However, AQ would slowly rally back and eventually narrow the CUAA lead to just three points with the score at 17-14. Another rally that featured a pair of kills from Nicholson would narrow that lead down to just one point with the score now at 19-18.

Following that point, Concordia would generate three consecutive kills to give them some breathing room late in the fourth set. AQ wasn't quite about to get back into the set and Concordia would, once again, tie the match with a 25-21 set victory.

Neither side was willing to give in during the all-important fifth and final set of the match. However, with the score tied at seven, CUAA would go on a massive 6-0 run to all but end the match. Shortly after, the Cardinals would win the match 3-2 with a 15-8 fifth set victory.

Aquinas led in a majority of the statistical categories, leading in kills (58-56), aces (9-6), and blocks (14-7). CUAA held a slight advantage in hitting percentage (.156-.129) and assists (56-53). Both sides had 85 digs.

Nicholson would be the team leader again in kills after adding 16 (.263) to her seasonal total.

Teachworth had another good match after contributing 15 kills (.214) and a team-leading 11 block assists. She also had an ace and a dig during the match.

Perkins would be the third Saint to reach double-digit kills with 14 (.175) during the match. In addition, she had a solo block, three block assists, and three digs.

Jordyn Carlyle set a personal-best in digs with an impressive 36 total digs as the libero. She also had a pair of kills and a pair of assists.

Sustrich averaged nearly ten assists per set with 47 total assists throughout five sets. Sustrich would also pick up four kills, an ace, four block assists, and three digs.

Aquinas is back in action tomorrow (Oct.29) at 1:00 PM against Madonna.