GEORGETOWN, Tex. – An uncharacteristic performance in a 3-1 loss to St. Thomas has dropped the southwestern University women's volleyball team into third place in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference standings.
Southwestern (13-9, 9-3 SCAC) outhit St. Thomas .157 to .122, but the difference in the match was the number of plays the Celts were able to keep alive on defense en route to the 25-20, 25-21, 17-25, 25-23 victory over the Pirates.
St. Thomas (17-7, 7-6 SCAC) had five players in double-figures in digs including Emerson Sykes with a match-high 19.
The Pirates were led on defense by libero Geneva Nedrow with 17 digs.
The Celts' digging ability in the first set was what gave them a 25-20 set victory despite neither team hitting above a .100 percentage.
Southwestern built an early 12-5 lead in the first set, but numerous attack errors as well as St. Thomas keeping points alive that looked to have hit the floor got the Celts back into the thick of things and 15-4 run got the visitors a 20-16 lead in the stanza.
The second set saw St. Thomas ride the momentum built up from the first set victory all the way to a 6-1 advantage before Southwestern pulled together on defense themselves.
Three attack errors by the Celts and a pair of service aces by Southwestern's Annika Flora tied the second set a 6-6 and while the Pirates were never able to overtake St. Thomas for the lead in the set, they fought hard and stayed within striking range to give themselves a chance.
That chance came in the third set with the score tied at 10-10 when kills by Lily McWhorter, Erica Otto and Riley Brantley as well as a St. Thomas attack error gave the Pirates a four-point lead at 14-10.
With the third set score 18-15 in favor of the Pirates in front of a boisterous crowd of 255 inside the Robertson Center, Southwestern closed out the set on a 7-1 run thanks to a pair of kills each from McWhorter and Andie Valenzuela.
The fourth and final set saw both teams fighting for control in the see-saw affair, but it wasn't until it was 23-23 before St. Thomas found a way to close out the match sending the Pirates to their first SCAC loss at home this season.
Sykes was the star of the match for the Celts with a 25-assist, 19-dig performance, but Southwestern had plenty of players with quality games statistically in the losing effort.
Flora had 16 assists, nine digs and two service aces while Claire Romo led the pair of setter with 23 assists.
Abi Benavides joined Nedrow in the double-digit dig column with 15 digs while McWhorter led the way offensively with 12 kills.
Brantley and Valenzuela added 10 kills each as the Pirates dropped the match on Senior Night.
UP NEXT
Southwestern have one match this week before closing the regular season out with a trip of matches next weekend with all four contests in Seguin. Up first though will be a match that will hold a lot of importance in the SCAC standings when the third-seeded Pirates travel to take on the two-seed Texas Lutheran squad on Friday, Oct. 21, at 6 p.m. CDT.