JOLIET, Ill. -- Senior outside hitter Riley Hungate totaled 11 kills for the University of St. Francis women's volleyball team on Wednesday evening in a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference match vs. St. Ambrose University (Iowa).  The Fighting Saints, however, came up short in the contest, dropping a four-set match to the Bees with scores of 25-22, 19-25, 25-21, 25-22.

St. Ambrose (5-6, 1-1 CCAC) took the first set of the match 25-22, winning a back-and-forth battle over the Saints.  After showcasing a slow start, USF rallied back to knot the game at 11-11, until four straight St. Ambrose errors gave the Saints their largest lead of the frame at 15-11.  SAU slowly started its recovery, tying the score at 19-19, before a kill from Emma Rodriguez allowed the Saints to regain a 20-19 advantage.  That would not last long, however.  Despite a number of long late rally efforts from USF, St. Ambrose would finish the first set on a 6-2 scoring clip to win 25-22.

St. Francis (2-7, 1-2) responded in the second set, winning the battle by a 25-19 score.  The two teams traded points throughout the first 15 rallies of the game until St. Ambrose rattled off four straight kills to jump ahead 12-7.  The Saints worked themselves back to a three-point deficit (17-14) before exploding for 10 consecutive points.  The scoring surge was aided with multiple kills from Sarah Schmidt fueling the hosts to a 24-17 edge.  The Bees would rebound with a 2-0 run to get closer, but the Saints finished strong, with a thundering kill from Schmidt for the final point to secure the St. Francis win.

Things looked promising for the Saints early in the third set as USF won the race to 10 with a three-point advantage (10-7).  The fun would come to a screeching halt, however, as the visitors got back in sync and captured the next eight rallies to help overtake the lead at a 15-10 clip.  Another run late in the stanza totaling seven consecutive SAU points gave the Bees a 24-17 lead and forced a stoppage from St. Francis in an attempt to squelch the bleeding.  USF slowly started its recovery and secured the next four points, but a St. Ambrose kill allowed the Bees to take the third set win.

Hoping to turn things around after its third-set defeat, St. Francis began Set 4 strong, but was unable to keep up with St. Ambrose down the stretch.  A 6-2 advantage slowly turned into an error riddled 11-8 deficit.  The Saints were able to slow down the Bee attack after registering four kills and two blocks over the next 20 rallies to claim the lead back at 20-19, but they would get out-scored 6-2 over the final eight points of the night to finish the set with a 25-22 defeat and end the four-set contest.

St. Francis recorded a .063 hitting percentage in the loss on its 144 attacks compared to St. Ambrose's .093 mark.  Along with Hungate's 11, Schmidt was second in line with seven kills for USF, while Alyssa Teske added three and was the front-runner in assists (11).  Cadence Wodrich (four solo, two assisted) and Delani Kirstein (two solo, four assisted) each totaled six blocks apiece and Ann Simon rang up a match-high 19 digs from her libero position.

Up Next
The Saints have a quick turnaround as they will take the court again Friday (Sept. 12) for a 3 pm face-off versus Cottey College (Mo.) followed by a 7 pm battle with Freed-Hardeman University (Tenn.).  The match is part of the University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy (Mo.) Eutectics Classic, which will include two additional matches being played on Saturday against Georgetown College (Ky.) and the UHSP.

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