CHICAGO – The University of St. Francis volleyball team put up a fight on Tuesday night, but came up short as it fell in four sets 22-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-15 to Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference foe Saint Xavier University.  USF's loss drops the Fighting Saints' season record to 15-15 overall, while sliding back to 6-4 in league play.

The Saints started off hot in Set 1, pulling ahead of Saint Xavier (13-10, 9-1 CCAC) in the middle of the game with a 4-1 run to take a 15-11 lead.  The Cougars slowly crept back into the mix with seven kills over the next 18 rallies to even the score at 22-22.  After an attacking error gave USF the serve, the Saints closed the door quickly on the Cougars, registering two straight kills from Desiree Anderson and Sophie Knazur for their final two points in the 25-22 victory.

The second set proved to be a back-and-forth battle throughout the first half with neither team having more than a two-point advantage.  With the score at 17-16 in SXU's favor, the momentum quickly shifted after a 5-0 run pushed the Cougars' lead to 22-16.  Kills from Cadence Wodrich and Taylor Connolly would inch the Saints closer, but the gap would be too much to overcome, evening the match at 1-1 with a 25-18 USF loss going into the third set.

Much like the second set, the third set stayed tight with six lead changes and four tied scores through the first 23 rallies.  The turning point in the set would start on the 24th rally when a 6-1 SXU run fueled by four Cougar kills allowed Saint Xavier to pull ahead 18-12.  In a pair of last-ditch efforts, St. Francis strung together two 3-0 scoring surges and also had a pair of kills from Hungate and a combined block by Knazur and Alyssa Teske.  It was not enough, however, as the Cougars ended the set victorious with three straight kills of their own to claim the set 25-21 and take a 2-1 lead in the match.

The Saints' defense ran out of gas in the fourth set with SXU tallying seven kills and one service ace to claim a commanding 10-2 lead.  After USF decreased its deficit to 10-6, Saint Xavier went on a 7-3 run to push USF back into a 17-9 hole.  Cougar kills continued to plague the Saints with seven more accounting for all but one of SXU's remaining eight points.  Saint Xavier collected 19 kills throughout the set to pave the way to the 25-15 Set 4 win.

Anderson led the Saints offensively with 10 kills, while Connolly had eight.  Kaylie Sippel led the team in assists with 17, while Abby Lab was close behind with 12. Defensively, Celeste Zavala edged out Anderson's 13 digs with a team high 14.  Sippel also posted nine digs to give her 1,008 for her career.  Teske claimed four block assists in the match, while Knazur collected three.

Up Next
The Saints will host Trinity Christian College next Tuesday (Oct. 29) in a CCAC matchup.  The contest is penciled in to begin at 7 pm in the Pat Sullivan Center on the campus of USF.

You can keep up with everything happening around USF Athletics on X @ USFSaints.com.