WASHINGTON, Pa. (Oct. 30) – After dropping the first two sets, the Saint Vincent women's volleyball team roared back to earn a 3-2 win in its season finale at Presidents' Athletic Conference foe Washington & Jefferson.
The Presidents claimed the first two sets by scores of 27-25 and 25-20, before the Bearcats earned decisive 25-18 and 25-14 wins to tie the match at 2-all. Saint Vincent then completed the comeback with a 15-9 victory in the final set.
Carly Augustine turned in her fourth triple-double of the season, erupting for 15 kills, 14 digs and 25 assists. Playing in her final career match, senior
Caitlyn Figuly tallied 12 kills and a team-best 3 blocks, while
Luciana Polk tallied 24 digs and
Stacie Ramos 22. Also playing in her career finale,
Sara Ellis led SVC with 4 aces, while also dishing 20 assists.
After falling behind 1-0 in the day's first set, Saint Vincent responded to take a 6-4 lead, with a pair of early kills from Figuly sandwiching Ellis's first ace of the day. The Presidents countered to tie it at 6-6, before putting together a 6-2 run to go in front 12-8. After kills by
Becca Miller and Augustine and another Ellis ace, SVC pulled to within one, 12-11, but the Presidents responded with four straight points to go up 16-11. Momentum would then swing back in favor of the Bearcats, as they scored 8 of the next 10 points, using two kills from Figuly, one from Augustine, and a
Nicolena Yanosick ace, to regain the lead at 19-18. The teams then traded the lead over the next several serves, before a Miller kill brought SVC to within one point of the win at 25-24. The Presidents, however, would tally the final three points of the set to claim a 27-25 win.
W&J opened up set two with the first three points, and would lead throughout. Early on, SVC twice cut it to a one-point deficit, with an Augustine kill pulling the Bearcats to within 4-3, but the Presidents answered with an 11-5 run to open up a commanding 16-5 lead. The Bearcats looked to chip away at the deficit, eventually pulling to within five, 22-17, but were unable to crawl out of the early hole, and the Presidents took the set 25-20.
The third set was a back-and-forth affair from the start, with the teams sharing seven ties and six lead changes early on. The Bearcats would hold a two-point advantage twice in the early stages, at 2-0 and 6-4, but the Presidents answered each time, taking leads of 9-7, 11-10 and 14-13. Tied at 15, the Bearcats erupted for five straight points, with an Augustine ace, and two kills apiece from
Kaelyn Staples and
Vivian Poach, to open up a 20-15 lead. W&J temporarily halted the run with a point to pull to within 20-16, but moments later, a kill from
Lindsey Kocjancic opened up a 23-17 advantage, before a Figuly spike made it 24-18 and Figuly and Augustine teamed up for a block to seal the 25-18 win and force a fourth set.
With the fourth set tied at 2-2, the Bearcats would quickly take control, using a 7-0 run to open up a 9-2 lead. Over the decisive surge, SVC received two kills from Augustine and one apiece from Staples and Ellis. Kills from Kocjancic and Staples upped the SVC lead to 13-4, before Figuly put down kills on back-to-back rallies to open up an 18-7 Bearcat advantage. The Presidents would pull to within 20-11, but the Bearcats outscored them 5-2 down the stretch, receiving kills from Kocjancic, Polk and Augustine to close out the 25-14 win and force the decisive fifth set. In the fourth set, SVC committed just three attack errors to hit a stellar .441.
The fifth set began in similar fashion as the fourth, with SVC jumping out to a 2-0 lead, only to see W&J counter to tie the score at 3-3. An Augustine kill gave the Bearcats a 4-3 lead, before SVC received blocks on back-to-back points, first from Kocjancic and then from the tandem of Staples and Poach, to open up a 6-3 advantage. The lead would hover between two and three points over the next few serves, before SVC scored three straight, using a kill from Polk, a W&J error and a Kocjancic ace to open up a decisive 11-5 advantage. The Presidents scored three straight to close the gap to three, but the Bearcats closed the match out in style, with a kill by Polk making it 12-8, before three straight Augustine kills sealed the 15-9 set win, and 3-2 match victory. As was the case in the fourth set, the SVC front line was again impressive in the fifth, committing just one error to hit at a .368 clip.
Kocjancic, Poach and Polk each added 7 kills for the Bearcats, while Miller ended the afternoon with two blocks.
The Bearcats close the 2021 season with a 9-17 overall record and 6-12 mark in the PAC, while the Presidents fell to 3-22 overall and 3-15 in the conference.
