JOLIET, Ill. -- The University of St. Francis women's volleyball team gained its eleventh conference win of the season Tuesday when the Fighting Saints closed out the night with a 3-2 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference victory with scores of 23-25, 25-21, 16-25, 30-28, 15-9 over Saint Xavier University at the Pat Sullivan Center.  With the win, the Saints improve to 14-8 on the season, and 12-4 in league play.

After trailing for the bulk of the opening set, the Saints were able to author their first lead of the frame at 17-16 before the Cougars responded quickly in recapturing the next four points to regain the lead and build their advantage to a 20-17 cushion.  The teams would trade points for the remainder of the stanza with the visitors connecting for a kill to close out the game and go up 1-0 in the match with the 25-23 victory.

St. Francis won the race to 15 in Set 2 with five Saints collecting at least one kill apiece to help the Saints secure a 15-11 advantage.  St. Francis would hold Saint Xavier (14-8, 12-4 CCAC) at bay the remainder of the way with two blocks and two strong kills each from Malaya Morris and Riley Hungate to put away the set in the Saints' favor, 25-21.

With the match tied 1-1, the intensity turned up in the third set with Saint Xavier jumping out to a quick 8-4 lead.  The Cougars looked to be in control at that point, but USF retaliated by discharging three straight points to come to within one at 8-7.  SXU would later extend its lead to a comfortable 20-15 advantage, but a disastrous 5-1 finish from the Cougars enabled Saint Xavier to widen the score and finish the set off with a final tally of 25-16.

USF continued to fight in the fourth set despite allowing its early 6-5 lead to slip away via a 5-1 Cougar run.  The game teetered out to a 15-15 score after both teams traded punches, but the Saints' offense looked to be too much for the Cougar defense as four of the next six USF points would come via kills and service aces.  SXU was able to seize some momentum back, tying the score seven times at from the 22nd to 28th points, but St. Francis wiped that charge away benefiting from a Kirstein service ace followed by a crowd raising kill from Alyssa Teske to finish out the set with a 30-28 win.

St. Francis started the final set strong by rattling off four of its first seven points by means of kills off Emma Rodriguez (three) and Hungate (one).  The Saints would then benefit from four straight SXU errors to claim an 11-6 lead before taking matters into their own hands by accounting for their final four points in kills to prevail 15-9 in the fifth frame and win the match 3-2.

St. Francis finished the night with a .134 hitting percentage and was led in kills by Teske with 14, followed by Rodriguez and Hungate with 11 apiece.  Ann Simon topped the Saints with 32 digs, while Cadence Wodrich authored a team-best four block assists to go along with one solo block.  Talia Messana (22) and Teske (20) paced the setters for a combined 42-assist performance.

Up Next
The Saints will take the court again on Thursday, Oct. 30 when they travel to University Park, Ill. to face the Jaguars of Governors State University.  The CCAC match is set to begin at 7 pm in the Athletics & Recreation Center.

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