Grand Rapids, Mich. — The Aquinas women's volleyball team rolled to a pair of convincing 3-0 sweeps in its tri-match home opener on Wednesday (Aug. 30) inside the Sturrus Center. The Aquinas tri-match was rescheduled from last Friday (Aug. 25) when the original matches against Goshen and Calumet College of St. Joseph were postponed due to a power outage on campus.

Goshen (2-1) was able to return on Wednesday, while Calumet St. Joseph was replaced by NCAA Division III opponent Defiance (0-2).

With the two wins, Aquinas improved to 7-2 overall on the young season. It's the Saints best start to a season since they went 18-1 to begin the 2020-21 campaign. 

Aquinas 3, Goshen 0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-12)

A balanced Saints' attack saw Jenna Lee (10), Abbi Perkins (10) and Samee Teachworth (9) collect the most kills. AQ finished with 39 kills on a .196 hitting percentage. They had six attack errors in each set.

Defensively, the Saints held Goshen to a -.032 attack percentage. Libero Jordyn Carlyle picked up 15 digs and Chloe Hagarth had nine. Setter Lydia Harper had six blocks to go with 28 assists, six digs and four kills. 

Aquinas took early leads in each of the three sets and never looked back. 

Aquinas 3, Defiance 0 (25-13, 25-10, 25-13)

After Defiance lost an up-and-down in-between match against Goshen (25-8, 9-25, 25-19, 25-18), Aquinas stepped in and dealt them their second loss of the season. AQ held its opponent to a negative attack percentage for a second straight match as the Yellow Jackets hit -.077 as a team.

The Saints nearly had as many block (9) as Defiance had kills (13). Madison Lawson put up five blocks and Teachworth had four. Hogarth led the team with 11 digs, Carlyle was close behind with nine digs.

Aquinas shared the ball around again with 10 kills from Teachworth and Perkins to lead the team. Harper was an active setter with 26 assists and nine kills.

The Saints jumped out to leads of 9-4 in the first set, 16-4 in the second set and 19-8 in the third set.

Peyton Goschka (2), Harper (2), Julia Schweihofer, Cece Pelak and Lee provided AQ's seven aces. 

The Saints are back in action next weekend as they co-host the Aquinas/Cornerstone Invite. AQ is scheduled to play Grace (3 p.m.) and IU-South Bend (7 p.m.) on Sept. 8 and then St. Francis (Ill.) (1 p.m.) and No. 22-ranked Mount Vernon Nazarene (3 p.m.) on Sept. 9. All four matches to be played at the Sturrus Center.