LATROBE, Pa. (Oct. 20) – The Saint Vincent College women's volleyball team was defeated by Grove City in three back-and-forth sets in a Presidents' Athletic Conference match in the Robert S. Carey Center on Tuesday night.
Set scores were 25-19, 26-24 and 30-28. All three sets saw ties of 17-17 or later, with the marathon third set featuring 17 ties and 7 lead changes.
In the first set, the two teams traded points over the first several serves, before a 4-0 run pushed Grove City out to a 7-3 lead. Saint Vincent answered back, with kills from
Vivian Poach,
Luciana Polk and
Carly Augustine promptly tying the set at 7-all. After the 4-point run, SVC would stay hot, eventually opening up a 12-10 run on a kill from
Lindsey Kocjancic. Grove City countered to tie it at 15, and the teams would trade points up to a 17-17 tie. The Wolverines, however, would close on an 8-2 run to take the 25-19 win.
Grove City carried its momentum over into the second set, jumping in front 10-3. Following a timeout, the Bearcats traded points with the Wolverines over several serves, before
Caitlyn Figuly took charge. Her first kill of the set trimmed the deficit to 17-12, and after a trio of Wolverine errors brought the Bearcats to within 17-14, three more Figuly kills made it a one-point game, 20-19. Trailing 23-20, the Bearcat prolonged the set with four straight points, highlighted by a
Nikki Friendshuh ace and a
Vivian Poach kill, to gain their first lead of the set, 24-23. SVC was unable to complete the comeback, though, with the Wolverines scoring the final three points to take the set 26-24.
Kills by Polk, Poach, Figuly and Augustine staked SVC out to a 5-3 lead to open the third set, before a pair of Grove City errors upped the Bearcat advantage to 7-3. The Wolverines countered with five straight points to take an 8-7 lead, before kills from
Becca Miller and Kocjancic spurred a 4-1 SVC run to put the hosts back in front 11-9. A Friendshuh ace upped the Bearcat lead to 14-10, and the hosts' would maintain an advantage between 2-3 points over the next several serves. After another Figuly kill made it 16-14, the Wolverines scored six of the next seven points to take their largest lead of the set, 20-17. Following a Saint Vincent timeout, the Bearcats rallied to tie it at 21-all, using a kill by Kocjancic and two from Augustine. The Wolverines came back to take a 24-23 lead and force match point, but Figuly and Augustine extended the match with kills to tie it at 25. The Wolverines picked up the next point, before Miller put down kills on back-to-back rallies to give the Bearcats a 27-26 lead. Again, Grove City answered right back to tie it, only for Miller to put down another kill to put SVC back in front 28-27. It was the final lead the Bearcats would have, though, with a pair of errors putting the Wolverines up 29-28, before Grove City closed the match with a kill for the 30-28 win.
Figuly accounted for a team-best 13.5 points on the evening, leading Saint Vincent with 10 kills and 4 blocks. She hit at a .348 clip. Augustine again flirted with another triple-double, with 8 kills, 9 assists and 18 digs.
Stacie Ramos led SVC with a career-high 21 digs, while Polk had 16 digs and Persin 14 to go with a team-best 17 assists.
The Bearcats will have a quick turnaround, returning to action on Thursday, Oct. 21, to host Waynesburg University in another PAC battle at 7 p.m. in the Carey Center.
