LATROBE, Pa. (Oct. 1) – After dropping the day's first set, the Saint Vincent women's volleyball team roared back for a 3-1 victory over Westminster in a Presidents' Athletic Conference bout in the Robert S. Carey Student Center.
 
The Bearcats (10-4, 1-0 PAC) came back from a 25-18 loss in the opening set to take the final three by scores of 25-19, 25-17 and 25-18.
 
Lindsey Kocjancic paced the Saint Vincent offense with 12 kills, while also adding 10 digs for the double-double. Luciana Polk recorded a 10-kill, 15-dig double-double, while Kaelyn Staples chipped in with nine kills.
 
Defensively, six SVC players reached double figures in the dig column, as Kocjancic and Polk were joined by Vivian Poach (22 digs), Stacie Ramos (17), Carly Augustine (17) and Madie Marsico (12).
 
Freshman Lauren Fox finished with a match- and career-high eight blocks, while Poach finished with four and Poach two.
Ramos served a match-high four aces. Augustine and Poach shared setting duties, with the former dishing 20 assists and the latter 16.
 
Westminster (2-16, 0-1 PAC) scored the first four points of the opening set and never looked back, leading for the set's duration enroute to the 25-18 win. SVC cut the deficit to two points on four different occasions, but was unable to produce a run to overtake the visitors.
 
The second set started in much of the same fashion, as the Titans jumped out to leads of 4-1 and 7-3. The Bearcats chipped away, with back-to-back kills from Kocjancic preceding a pair of Westminster service errors to tie the set at 7-all. Westminster countered to take a 14-11 lead, but SVC recorded four of the next five points, capped off with an Augustine ace, to forge a 15-15 tie. Westminster answered back to take a 19-17 lead, but momentum then went the way of the Bearcats. Kills from Kocjancic and Polk tied it at 19, and SVC would then pull away with six straight points, with Polk's third kill of the set capping off an 8-0 run and sealing the 25-19 win.
 
Set three started with the teams trading three ties and two lead changes early on, before the Bearcats embarked on a lengthy 8-1 run to take a 14-6 lead on an Augustine kill. Saint Vincent continued to roll, opening up an 18-9 lead on a Staples kill, before an ace from Kocjancic moments later would up the lead to 11, 21-10. The visitors produced a late rally to pull to within 24-17, but Polk would produce another set-winning kill to close out the 25-17 win.
 
The Bearcats put the fourth set out of reach early, opening up a quick 7-0 lead, with Ramos serving a pair of aces and Augustine and Staples each producing kills over the surge. The lead would grow to 12-3 after a Westminster error, before a solo block from Augustine put SVC in front by double digits, 18-8. A Poach kill, followed by a block by the duo of Fox and Poach, upped the SVC lead to 24-13, and after a late Titan rally, Augustine closed it out with a kill to account for the 25-18 final.
 
Lauren Lampus recorded 10 kills and 15 digs to lead Westminster, while teammate Macy Stoddard produced a match-high 27 digs and teammate Malia Duffy 22.
 
The victory was Saint Vincent's eighth in nine home matches this season, while SVC's 10-4 start is the team's best since the 2012 squad opened with an 11-4 mark.
 
The Bearcats will be back in action on Wednesday, Oct. 5, hosting La Roche in a 7 p.m. non-conference bout in the Carey Center.