UNIVERSITY PARK, Ill. --
Delani Kirstein (11) and
Alyssa Teske (11) combined to total 22 kills for the University of St. Francis women's volleyball team on Tuesday evening in a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference match vs. Governors State University. The Fighting Saints, however, came up short in the contest, dropping a four-set match to the Jaguars with scores of 11-25, 25-16, 25-16, 25-16.
The Saints (9-15, 7-9 CCAC) started off hot in the first set, pulling ahead of Governors State (10-14, 7-9) in the middle of the game with an 8-2 run to take a 19-8 lead. Kirstein and Teske started off the scoring surge with back-to-back kills. St. Francis kept the momentum going with subsequent kills from
Emma Rodriguez,
Taryn Mathews and
Sarah Schmidt before a kill by
Kennedy Walker finished off the set 25-11.
The second set proved to be an even contest through the first 25 rallies with the Jaguars holding the slight edge over the Saints 13-12. The back-breaker in the set for St. Francis would be a 5-0 GSU run with the hosts claiming the majority of their points off kills from Greta Bochert to widen the gap to 18-12. The teams would then swap points before Governors State ended the frame on a 6-2 scoring spurt to claim victory and even the match at 1-1.
USF got off to a slower start in the second set with the Jaguars jumping out to a 7-2 lead. The Saints responded by putting together an 8-5 swing of their own to decrease their deficit to two points at 12-10. The next several rallies were a back-and-forth battle that resulted in St. Francis staying close, but the Jaguars eventually took off and rattled off seven of the set's last nine points to take the 25-16 win.
The Jaguars cruised the majority of the way in Set 4, tallying five kills, four service aces and one block within their first 16 points to take a monstrous 16-3 lead. The match quickly turned to chaos, however, as St. Francis was not able to find an answer for the GSU front line.
Alyssa Ignasak tried to stop the bleeding with three kills among USF's six remaining points, but the Jaguars' momentum was too much to stop as Governors State came out on top in the final frame 25-10.
Landry Hall led the Saints in assists with 24, while Walker was second in line with 12.
Ann Simon anchored the defense with 17 digs.
Up Next
The Saints will take the court again next Tuesday (Nov. 3) for a 7 pm face-off versus Indiana University Northwest. The CCAC matchup will take place at the Pat Sullivan Center in Joliet, Ill.
You can keep up with everything happening around USF Athletics on X @USFSaints.
