Joilet, Ill. — The Aquinas women's volleyball team got back in the win column Saturday afternoon (Sept. 3) by splitting a pair of matches on the final day of the St. Francis Tournament.
Match 1: Aquinas 3, St. Francis (Ill.) 1. Set scores: 23-25, 25-18, 25-23, 25-14.
Revenge is sweet, as the AQ Saints (2-8) knocked off the tournament hosts, 3-1, after the St. Francis Saints upended Aquinas in a five-set marathon match a week ago at the Aquinas Classic.
St. Francis (4-4) won the opening frame by the minimum, 25-23. They put down 17 kills in the set and were led offensively throughout the match by Gabriela Oliveira, who finished with a match-high 17 kills. Oliveira ended the first frame with a kill.
The second set was last tied at 7-7 before AQ pulled away. Aquinas scored its last five points on three attacking errors from St. Francis and two kills from
Abbi Perkins. AQ didn't have more than four attack errors in a single set while St. Francis had six or more attack errors in each set.
Aquinas finished the match with a season-high .314 team attack percentage.
The two teams couldn't be separated by more than four points in the all-important third frame. With the set-point on the line, Aquinas turned to senior
Brooke Nicholson to finish the job. Nicholson found the floor for a 25-23 win. She finished with 12 kills, as did freshman outside hitter
Jenna Lee. Add 10 more kills from junior
Samee Teachworth and the Saints had three players with double-digit kills for the second time in a match this season.
AQ scored the first seven points of the fourth frame to put the match out of reach before coasting to a stress-free 25-14 set win. Aquinas registered more aces (7-5) and blocks (8-2) in route to its second victory of the season.
Match 2: Aquinas 0, (RV) Loyola (La.) 3. Set scores: 16-25, 19-25, 17-25.
The Saints didn't have much left in the tank for their fourth and final match of the two-day tournament. Unable to reach 20 points in any frame, AQ suffered only its second sweep of the season. (RV) Loyola moved its record to 7-5 overall.
The Saints were undone mostly by their own miscues, racking up 21 attacking errors, despite finishing with three more kills (35-32) than the Wolfpack. Loyola also had five aces, while AQ had none for the first time this season.
Perkins (10 kills, .259 hitting percentage), Teachworth (7, .462) and Nicholson (5, .231) carried the Saints offense.
Jennifer Johnson led the team defensively with 12 digs.
AQ is back at home on September 9-10 to co-host the shared Aquinas/Cornerstone Invite. The Saints will play a pair of matches at the Sturrus Center each day. On Friday (Sept. 9), AQ will take on Judson at 3 p.m. and No. 12-ranked Bellevue at 7 p.m. On Saturday (Sept. 10), AQ meets Saint Xavier at 1 p.m. and (RV) IU-Kokomo at 3 p.m.
