Grand Rapids, Mich. – The Saints kicked off their season with the Aquinas Classic today (Aug. 26). AQ matched up with St. Francis and William Penn. Both matches would come down to the wire in five sets. Aquinas would hold the advantage in the fifth set of both matches, but the opposing side would rally back to win in each set, providing the Saints with consecutive losses in heartbreaking fashion.

Match 1: Aquinas 2, Saint Francis 3. Sets scores: 25-14, 24-26, 23-25, 25-21, and 10-15

The Saints started the first set off with a bang, racing out to a commanding 15-7 lead. Abbi Perkins contributed a pair of kills and a pair of aces to get the Saints started right. Freshman outside hitter, Jenna Lee, picked up a pair of kills as well, getting the first kills of her collegiate career. Jennifer Johnson would then serve a 5-0 run to give AQ a 21-8 advantage. The Fighting Saints would pick up a few points, but it would be too little, too late. Aquinas would go on to win the first set 25-14.

The second and third sets would not be as favorable for AQ. Errors would plague the Aquinas attack and provide St. Francis with an advantage in both sets. SF held a 24-18 lead at the end of the second set. The Saints would pull of an incredible rally to tie the second set 24-24. However, St. Francis would pick up the next two points to win 26-24 in the second set.

AQ started the third set with a big 10-4 lead but, this time, the Fighting Saints would start a mid-set rally of their own, tying the set at 15s. That momentum would continue as SF would hold a 22-19 lead. Several errors and a kill from Lee would keep the set close, but it would be the Fighting Saints of Illinois that would take a 2-1 match lead with a 25-23 win.

The Saints would stick to the theme in the fourth set, starting off with a 6-1 advantage. However, again, St. Francis would come back and keep the set close. Perkins and Lee would combine for six kills in the fourth set, leading the way for the Saints to take a 25-21 fourth set win. This win would bring the match to an all-important fifth and final set.

Aquinas appeared to be cruising to a 3-2 victory with an 8-3 lead in the fifth set. However, after changing sides mid-set, the final set would be all St. Francis. The Fighting Saints would take the next nine points and then proceed to close out the final set with a 15-10 score.

Perkins and Lee led the team in kills with 17 (.233 hitting percentage) and nine (.192 hitting percentage), respectively. Perkins also contributed two assists, four aces, 13 digs, a solo block, and three block assists in a huge game.

Johnson was a rock defensively, picking up 15 digs on the score sheet. She also had four service aces of her own and six assists.

Aquinas held the statistical advantage in every category, leading in kills (47-40), hitting percentage (.115-.014), assists (44-34), aces (14-13), digs (64-62), and blocks (16-6).

Match 2: Aquinas 2, William Penn 3. Set scores: 24-26, 25-16, 25-18, 15-25, and 15-17

AQ started off with the lead again in the first set of the second match of the night. Perkins picked up a few more huge kills, but it would be William Penn that would slowly make its way back into the match. The Saints held a 17-14 advantage, but WPU would come back to make the score 22-20. Aquinas would take a timeout to recollect themselves and be immediately reward with a big point off of a Perkins kill. The Statesmen would respond with a timeout of their own, but it would be AQ that would continue a comeback. The Saints would come back to take a 24-23 advantage, but William Penn would respond, making the set score 25-24. A big kill from the Statesmen would end the first set 26-24 in favor of William Penn.

The second set would start differently, with William Penn starting off with a big lead. However, Aquinas would be the ones to rally back. Several huge kills from Jordyn Carlyle and a pair of blocks from Ryleigh Blough and Samee Teachworth would give the Saints a mid-set advantage. Aquinas would clamp down on the lead with a couple of blocks from Brooke Nicholson, leading to a dominant 25-16 victory in the second set.

Set number three started off close, but the hometown crowd rallied behind the Saints as they began to pull away. Teachworth and Carlyle had a couple of massive kills, along with a couple of huge blocks from Nicholson to give the Saints a 15-8 lead. The Statesmen would begin to mount a bit of a comeback, but Nicholson put an end to any momentum that may have been brewing with two kills. WPU would attempt to stop the bleeding with the score at 22-16. Freshman Julia Schweihofer would get a pair of aces and Teachworth would end the set with a kill for a 25-18 set three win.

The Saints entered the fourth set with all of the momentum and the home crowd behind them.

William Penn completely disregarded any momentum that the Saints had entering the set and came out swinging, taking a 10-2 lead and forcing an Aquinas timeout. The Saints would never be able to pick up traction during the set. A 25-15 victory for William Penn would push AQ to another five-set match.

The two sides battled back-and-forth with neither team wanting to end the night on a loss. Aquinas mounted a 9-8 lead, causing a William Penn timeout. AQ came out of the timeout with consecutive aces to increase the lead to 11-8. The Statesmen would respond with two points of their own and the Saints would take a turn calling a timeout. Teachworth would respond with two clutch kills to give Aquinas a 13-11 lead late in the match. Aquinas appeared to have in in its control with a 14-11 lead, but the Statesmen would rally back and win the set 17-15, giving AQ its second heartbreaking loss of the day.

Cassie Sustrich showed up well in the match with 46 assists, three kills, two aces, six digs, and three block assists.

Nicholson would lead the team with kills in this match with 13 (.206). She also contributed a dig and six block assists to the score sheet. Carlyle and Teachworth each had 12 kills with Teachworth contributing an impressive .478 hitting percentage.

Johnson had another solid outing with 20 digs and two assists.

The Saints held the statistical advantage in kills (53-46), hitting percentage (.137-.092), assists (48-40), and aces (11-6). William Penn held the edge in digs (68-66) and blocks (15-12).

The Saints are back in action tomorrow with a four-match day. They will start at 1:00 PM against the Bethel Pilots for the second day of the Aquinas Classic.