LA CROSSE, Wis. – Coming off a 3-0 sweep over Trinity Christian College just four days earlier, the University of St. Francis women's volleyball team was not able to carry that momentum over to Saturday afternoon as the NAIA No. 13-ranked Viterbo University V-Hawks handed the Fighting Saints a 25-13, 25-14, 25-18 loss.  The defeat drops the Saints to 16-16 overall on the season and 7-5 in Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference play.

The Saints started Set 1 strong with the two teams battling back-and-forth through the first eight rallies.  With the score tied at 4-4, the momentum quickly swung in Viterbo's favor with a 7-0 scoring spurt to up VU's advantage to 11-4.  St. Francis continued to fight, but the V-Hawk front line proved to be too much for the USF defense to handle as a string of seven kills over Viterbo's next nine points widened the scoring gap to 20-9.  Riley Hungate responded with two quick kills for St. Francis, but the Saints could not stop the V-Hawk hitters as the first set closed early with the final score of 25-13.

USF raced out to a dominating start in Set 2, building a quick 7-0 lead and forcing Viterbo (19-9, 11-0) to call a timeout.  The breather was all the V-Hawks needed as they responded with a 14-2 run of their own to take a 14-9 lead.  The surge gave Viterbo life as its hitters continued to challenge the USF defense the remainder of the set with eight of the team's last 11 points coming off kills.  Despite creating extended rallies, the Saints fell 25-14.

After falling behind 2-0 in Set 3, St. Francis refused to go down quietly.  Fueled by three kills from Taylor Connolly and two from Desiree Anderson, the third set remained in a deadlock at 10-10.  A V-Hawk 4-0 run would immediately be matched by a 3-0 run from USF, but the back-breaker of the match would come over the next nine rallies.  Viterbo would claim eight of those points to pull ahead 22-14.  After a VU service error, three straight kills from Anderson, Hungate and Sophie Knzaur gave the Saints life, but it would be too little, too late with Viterbo claiming the 25-18 win and the match sweep.

Anderson and Hungate led St. Francis' offensive attack with seven kills apiece in the contest.  Abby Lab and Hungate led the back row with nine digs each, while Kaylie Sippel had a team-high 10 assists.

Up Next
St. Francis will look to get back in the win column on Nov. 5 when it hosts conference opponent Indiana University Northwest at 7 pm in the Sullivan Center.

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