Adrian, Mich. – The seventh-seed AQ Saints women's volleyball team took on the second-seed (RV) Siena Heights Saints tonight (Nov. 9) to kick off the 2022 WHAC Tournament quarterfinals. For the third time this season, Siena Heights would get the best of Aquinas inside of the Siena Heights Fieldhouse. SHU would win the match in three sets by scores of 25-17, 28-26, and 25-15.
AQ finishes the season with a 12-23 overall record and an 8-12 conference record. Siena Heights got the best of the Saints for the second consecutive year in the WHAC quarterfinals.
The visiting Saints started the first set with a 2-0 advantage, but SHU quickly responded to take a 4-2 lead. Siena Heights would hold a slim lead, but the Saints continued to close the gap, tying the first set at 7-7 and 10-10. However, the home side would finally break the stalemate with a 7-1 run that would force AQ to use its first timeout with the score at 17-11.
Aquinas looked to grab a foothold in the set as it narrowed the SHU lead to just three after a kill and a block from
Abbi Perkins and
Brooke Nicholson. SHU would, again, respond quickly with a 4-0 run that gave the home team a 22-15 lead late in the first set. The large deficit would be too much to overcome for AQ as Siena Heights marched to a 25-17 victory.
SHU continued its momentum into the second set, taking an early 9-4 lead. Shortly after, the Saints would come back with a 4-0 run that featured two aces from
Jennifer Johnson to narrow the home side's lead to just one point. SHU would use its first timeout of the set with the score at 13-12 in favor of the home team.
The two teams continued to battle back-and-forth until a 4-0 run from AQ that featured a kill from
Samee Teachworth, an ace from Johnson, and a kill from Perkins gave AQ a late 22-20 lead and would force SHU to use its second timeout of the set.
Siena Heights would respond with a quick two points to tie the set at 22-22 and AQ would use a timeout in an attempt to halt any building momentum. Late-match excitement would continue as AQ would take the next two points out of the timeout to force match point. SHU would respond with two points of its own to tie the match at 24-24. A kill from Nicholson would give AQ match point again, but the Saints of Siena Heights would tie the set with a kill of their own.
With the score at 25-25, Perkins would give AQ match point again with a 26-25 lead. However, once again, SHU would respond with a kill of its own to tie the set again. Siena Heights would take a late 27-26 lead after a service ace and would then win the set 28-26 after an error from the visiting team.
Aquinas struggled to build any momentum in the third set as Siena Heights continuously responded to any point that AQ would score. With a 15-12 lead, SHU would score a couple of points and force AQ to use a timeout in an attempt to remain in the match. The timeout would not work as intended as the home side would score five more points out of the AQ timeout. With a 22-12 lead, the deficit would be too much to overcome for the Aquinas Saints. The teams would split the final six points 3-3 as SHU would win the set 25-15.
Siena Heights would lead in nearly every statistical category, leading in kills (46-27), hitting percentage (.282-.078), assists (44-24), aces (9-7), and digs (47-43). AQ would hold a slight edge in blocks with six to SHU's three.
Perkins would be the one to lead the time with nine kills (.167) on the match. In addition, she would add two block assists and a dig to her stat line.
Nicholson would also contribute a pair of block assists along with her seven kills (.120).
Jordyn Carlyle averaged five digs per set as the libero with 15 total digs on the match. She would also assist three kills in the effort tonight.
Siena Heights advances in the WHAC Tournament to take on the third-seeded Indiana Tech Warriors after IIT won its match against Lourdes in five sets. Aquinas turns its attention to the 2023 season after tonight's result.
