GEORGETOWN - As the No. 3 Southwestern University volleyball team celebrated three seniors in pregame, the Pirates were able to send them out winners in their final home contest as they defensive Division II St. Mary's in a thrilling five set match on Saturday afternoon at the Robertson Center.
The Pirates hit .183 on the night while holding the Rattlers to .143. Southwestern racked up 20 block assists and two block solos on the evening.
Southwestern got off to a great start, using the emotions and excitement from senior night to dominate set one, 25-16. However, St. Mary's had a response in the next two sets, winning 25-19, 25-21 to take a 2-1 lead as they looked to play spoilers in the finale.
"This team did some good things getting the match started and using the senior night joy to compete and play some clean volleyball," said Head Coach Don Flora. "The staff gives St. Mary's a lot of credit for putting a ton of pressure on us in our passing game. With their good serving, their defense started making quality reads on our attackers in the second and thirds sets."
Southwestern used their best hitting set for the fourth set, hitting .286 as a team with 16 kills to only four errors as they forced the fifth set after a 25-17 win.
"The real joy as a staff is seeing the team stick together and raise their joy and execution in the fourth and fifth sets," said Flora. "Execution in crunch time is something we are continuing to grow into each match."
The Pirates played great defense in the fifth set and took advantage of eight St. Mary's errors to close the match out and close the regular season with a 15-13 win in set five. For the team, it not only meant a lot to win their final regular season game, but it meant just as much to send the seniors out with a victory.
Flora on that subject, "Most importantly these seniors are loved and respected and we found a way to get a win on their night."
Junior Jamison Duck finished with 13 kills and 20 digs while senior Piper Sisemore had 12 kills, one solo block, and four block assists. Fellow senior Kate Mitchell had 11 kills and four block assists while the third senior, Haley Moffett, started the match and earned a kill and two digs.
Junior Megan Grimes had 44 assists, 15 digs, and two service aces while junior Brandi Campos had 16 digs. Sophomore Brittany Hohlt had a solo block and six block assists while Grimes added three block assists.
Southwestern concludes the regular season at 27-4 and will now prepare for the SCAC Championship in Kerrville, Texas. The Pirates, the No. 3 seed in the conference, will open up against No. 6 Centenary on Friday afternoon at 1 PM. The winner of that match will move on to face No. 2 Trinity on Saturday.
