PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. --- The University of St. Francis women's volleyball team opened the Trinity Christian College Trolls Invite gaining a split decision on Friday night to put its overall record at 14-10 on the season. The Saints opened with a 25-14, 25-10, 25-13 victory over Knox College before falling to NAIA No. 4-ranked Missouri Baptist University 25-21, 25-17, 25-16.
Desiree Anderson delivered nine kills in each of the two matches for USF. She also recorded five of the team's nine aces and 12 digs.
Other leaders on the night included
Hannah Pacheco with 22 assists,
Stephanie Woods with seven blocks and
Hannah Monfre with 17 digs.
Match 1: USF def. Knox 25-14, 25-10, 25-13
In the opening match, the Saints coasted by producing a season-high .372 attack percentage. All five players who recorded at least three kills attacked at a .333 clip or higher led by Woods at .500 (6 kills, 1 error, ten chances).
Gabriela Oliveira netted a match-high 11 kills to go along with a .348 hitting percentage. Anderson attacked at a .353 clip en route to her nine kills, while
Taylor Connolly and
Cadence Wodrich added four and three kills, respectively.
Anderson did not stop there, adding a match-high four aces and seven digs.
Hannah Monfre led the latter category with nine digs. Woods led in the other defensive category with her four block assists.
Abby Lab and Pacheco combined for 28 assists with Lab topping the chart with 15.
Head coach
Cara Currier's team controlled the match from start to finish with Knox (5-10) holding only two leads, 1-0 and 2-1, both of which came in Set 2. In Set 1, the Saints put together five runs of three or more points.
In the second set, USF had runs of four, seven and eight points with Anderson providing two kills and two aces in the latter surge.
In Set 3, St. Francis used an unanswered run of five points to go up 14-7 and never looked back.
Match 2: Missouri Baptist def. USF 25-21, 25-17, 25-16
The Saints were not as successful on the offensive end against the defending NAIA national champions, hitting at just a .112 clip. Anderson was the lone Saint to total at least five kills, finishing with nine.
Sippel and Pacheco each provided nine assists, while Wodrich, Woods and Oliveira each came up with three blocks. Monfre turned in a team-high eight digs.
The Saints hung tough with Missouri Baptist (17-2) in the first two sets, which featured seven ties in each.
Neither team led by more than three points for the majority of the first set. The Saints held a lead as late as 13-11. MBU gained the biggest advantage of the match at 21-17 before USF got back into it with the next three points. The Spartans then took the set by gaining four of the final five points.
The second set was also close early on before Missouri Baptist turned an 11-10 lead into an 18-11 advantage with a 7-1 run. The Spartans then used 8-2 and 6-0 bursts in the closing set to claim the match.
Notes: USF's previous high-water attacking mark for the season was set three nights earlier on Tuesday in a three-set win over Judson University, where the Saints turned in a .275 report … Up until the Missouri Baptist match, Woods attacked at a .250-or-better clip in five straight matches … The Saints will look to gain revenge on Concordia University, Mich. for an earlier three-set loss back in September when they meet at noon on Saturday … USF closes out the four-match Trinity Christian Trolls Invite against Spring Arbor University (Mich.) at 2 pm.
Links to live coverage can be found at gofightingsaints.com/coverage. You can also keep up with everything happening around USF Athletics on Twitter @USFSaints.
