GARY, Ind. -- On a night where everything looked to be falling in its favor, the University of St. Francis women's volleyball team fell short in a five-set reverse sweep defeat to Indiana University Northwest in Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference action. St. Francis' loss moves the Fighting Saints to an overall record of 7-8 on the year, and 5-3 in league standings.
Alyssa Teske led the team in kills with 14, with
Aubrey Phillips not far behind with 10.
Landry Hall (24) and
Kennedy Walker (17) combined to tally 41 assists, while
Ann Simon capped the defense off with 14 digs.
The Saints started off the match with a 6-1 lead, but the RedHawks (9-4, 5-2 CCAC) retaliated with a vengeance, authoring an 18-13 scoring run to knot the score at 19-19. The momentum would quickly teeter back to St. Francis, however, when IUN accounted for five errors over the next six rallies to allow the Saints to claim the 25-19 victory in the first set.
Using the momentum harnessed from the end of Set 1, the Saints picked up right where they left off at the beginning of the second frame to take an early 4-1 lead with
Delani Kirstein and Phillips accounting for USF's first three kills. After a number of back-and-forth points, the two teams traded matching 5-1 runs late before settling into a 23-23 tied score. Back-to-back kills from Teske and
Olivia Cosgrove on the next two rallies saw the Saints come out victorious in the end with the 25-23 final score and the 2-0 lead in the match.
With the first two wins under its belt, St. Francis started the third set motivated, as attacking errors from the hosts helped boost the Saints to an early 15-13 lead. Indiana Northwest would respond with a dominating 8-1 spurt and overtake the lead at 21-16, however they slowly lost their grip on it, as a trio of Saints pushed their team back to within one point (22-21) via a string of kills. The RedHawks would continue to be a thorn in USF's side and would obtain the next two points before claiming the final point in the set with a kill to carry the hosts to a 25-21 win.
After the RedHawks jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead and the Saints countered with an 8-3 run of their own to mark the score at 8-8, the remainder of the fourth set showcased St. Francis and Indiana Northwest going round for round in the game. Both sides scored multiple 2-0 runs with IUN holding onto a slight advantage throughout, eventually landing with the RedHawks in front by a 23-18 count. After an IUN attacking error and two kills from
Sarah Schmidt and Phillips gave USF a glimpse of hope, the hosts again were the ones to close out the final two points of the game via kills, forcing a fifth set following the 25-21 win.
In the fifth set, the Saints were able to tie the score early at 2-2, but couldn't put the nail in the coffin as attacking errors allowed IUN to take a crippling 10-3 lead. The RedHawks never looked back from there and took the 15-7 Set 5 victory and the 3-2 match win.
Up Next
St. Francis has three days of rest before it returns to action on Saturday, October 3. USF will be back at home to take on Cumberland University (Tenn.) at 1 pm in the Pat Sullivan Center.
You can keep up with everything happening around USF Athletics on X @USFSaints.
