AVE MARIA, FLA. – St. Thomas University's Women's Volleyball team (6-12, 5-5 TSC) got back in the win column with a five-set victory over Sun Conference opponent, Ave Maria University (4-11, 1-8 TSC) from Ave Maria University on Wednesday night.
The Bobcats raced out to a commanding eight-point advantage over the Gyrenes, with the score sitting at 14-6, as
Nathaly Alvarez racked up three kills to lead the offensive charge. AMU was able to chip-away at the STU lead and trimmed it down to just three as St. Thomas maintained their lead at 20-17. Once again, the Bobcats leaned on Alvarez as she recorded another kill to extend the lead back to four. AMU called a timeout and cut the lead down to two points, however, the Bobcats weathered the attacks and clinched the set victory at 25-22.
The second set of the match provided a look into how the rest of the match played out, a back-and-forth matchup between teams competing for a Sun Conference tournament berth on the line. STU saw themselves trailing 1-6 before needing to mount a comeback to stay in the set. The Bobcats rallied to tie the match at 9-9,
Courtney White led the comeback as she registered three kills to force the tie. As the set continued on, STU was unable to grasp a lead over AMU and ultimately dropped the set by a score of 22-25.
In a decisive third set, St. Thomas was able to open with a five-point lead at 7-2 over Ave Maria, before once again the Gyrenes battled back to tie the set at 8-8. After claiming the lead over STU at 9-10, AMU never relinquished it again, taking the third set over the Bobcats 20-25.
As the match continued on into the fourth set, St. Thomas had their backs against the wall, needing to win back-to-back sets to clinch the Sun Conference victory. White did not let the Bobcats die, leading another comeback, after STU trailed by five-points at 14-19. White recorded a kill and block to lead the way back to a tie which came after an AMU timeout. Ave Maria saw themselves just two-points away from their second conference win of the season, before
Dayma Pla brought the momentum back to the Bobcats with a service ace and as
Victoria Philpot recorded the final kill of the set, as the Bobcats rallied for five consecutive points to force a match-tie at 2-2.
St. Thomas maintained that momentum into the fifth and final set of the match, opening up an 8-4 lead over the Gyrenes, as
Krista Kolbinskie and
Arianna Bolinger each recorded two kills to build the lead. STU built a six-point lead at 12-6 before Bolinger called "game", finishing the match with three consecutive kills to give the Bobcats the hard-fought conference win.
Bobcat Leaders
Arianna Bolinger: 14 kills
Krista Kolbinskie: 13 kills, 32 digs
Courtney White: 12 kills, three solo blocks
Nathaly Alvarez: 26 assists
Up next for STU is a road trip to Brunswick, GA to take on the College of Coastal Georgia as Sun Conference play continues with a major match-up on Saturday, October 13
th at 2 p.m.
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