PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. --- The University of St. Francis women's volleyball team gained its first conference win of the season Wednesday night when the Fighting Saints opened Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference play with a 25-17, 25-19, 25-22 victory over Trinity Christian College at DeVos Gymnasium.

Senior setter Kaylie Sippel was a multi-faceted force against the Trolls as she authored a rare triple-double with her 11 kills, 11 digs and 11 assists.  The accomplishment was the first of her career and just the third in the past 10 seasons for St. Francis.  The last triple-double to occur for USF was back in 2015 when Danielle Conrad (12 kills, 11 digs, 20 assists) achieved the feat versus Calumet College of St. Joseph in four sets.

Sophie Knazur chipped in six kills of her own with a team-leading .600 attack percentage.  Key contributors for the Saints on the defensive end were Riley Hungate (12 digs) and Ann Simon (11 digs).  St. Francis outhit the Trolls .178 to .048 on the night.

The opening set stayed tight with each team exchanging three-point swings throughout the first half.  The Saints would pull away, however, to as high as a 10-point lead in the second half to cruise to the 25-17 win.  The second set told a similar story as the score was locked at 15-15 before a 9-1 scoring run put the set out of the Trolls' reach.  Desiree Anderson authored a kill as part of a 10-2 run to build a 15-11 lead in Set 3.  Trinity Christian would later put together its own four-point swing to cut that deficit down to 23-22 before the Saints notched the final two points with back-to-back kills from Anderson and Taylor Connolly to close out the set and the win for the Saints.

Next Game
St. Francis will travel to Grand Rapids, Mich. on Friday to compete in the Cornerstone University/Aquinas College Invite.  USF will take on Concordia University (Mich.) at 4 pm and host Cornerstone at 6 pm on day one of the tournament.  That will be followed by matchups against Cumberland University (Tenn.) at 10 am and Aquinas at 2 pm on Saturday.  Day two of the tournament will be hosted by Aquinas College.

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