St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
VILLANOVA *
St. John's Volleyball Tames Wildcats, 3-1
11/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 1, 2008
QUEENS, N.Y. - Senior Valeria Kovaleva registered a new career-high with 21 kills and classmate Lena Yee tallied a match-high 28 digs to lead the St. John's volleyball team to a 3-1 victory over Villanova on Saturday afternoon at Carnesecca Arena. The Red Storm won its sixth straight match with the 25-22, 27-29, 25-18, 25-16 win and improves to 17-7 overall, while remaining in first place in the BIG EAST with an 8-1 conference record. Villanova falls to 13-12 (4-5 BIG EAST) with the loss.
Kovaleva was one of two St. John's players to register a double-double, as she also picked up 13 digs in the match to go along with a .311 hitting percentage and three blocks. Senior Casie Brooks tallied 12 kills and 10 digs for the Red Storm's other double-double and also registered a match-high .400 hitting percentage and two solo blocks on the afternoon. Senior Chen Chen tallied 13 kills to round out STJ's players with double-digit kills.
Yee's 28 digs leaves the libero just 10 shy of 2,000 for her career, which she will look to earn tomorrow against Seton Hall. Senior Wioleta Leszczynska equaled the match-high with 49 assists, while chipping in nine digs, three kills, and three blocks. Sophomore Kun Song was one kill shy of a double-double with nine kills and 13 digs, while freshman Darlene Ramdin tied the match-high in blocks with five, while contributing eight kills.
The first set was close until the Red Storm pulled away with three straight points to take a 14-11 lead, forcing Villanova to call its first timeout. After the break, the Wildcats fought back to tie the score at 19-19, but again STJ picked up three consecutive points and VU used its second and final timeout of the set down, 22-19. Back from the break, three late kills by Kovaleva, including the set-clincher ended the first set, 25-22.
Villanova worked up a 6-2 lead to start the second set, forcing St. John's to call an early timeout. After the break, the Red Storm rallied back from 10-5 to tie the score at 11-11, then took a 12-11 lead on a service ace by sophomore Kayla Motoyama. The set featured a total of 11 tie scores and eight lead changes as it was played closely through to the end. VU came out on top in extended play, 29-27. The teams went into the locker rooms tied 1-1 in the match.
Neither team established a healthy advantage in the third set until the Red Storm took the lead for good on a kill by Chen to make it 11-10. From that point, STJ built up an 18-14 lead and Villanova called its first timeout of the set. Back from the breather, St. John's took three of the next four plays to extend its lead to 21-15. A kill by Brooks ended the set, 25-18, and the Red Storm took a 2-1 lead in the match.
The Red Storm came out strong in the fourth set, building leads of 6-1, 9-2 and 12-3, and Villanova used both timeouts early. With St. John's leading 18-6, the Wildcats tallied three straight points to make it 18-9 and STJ burnt its first timeout. The Red Storm held off VU and won the set, 25-16, on a kill by Ramdin.
For Villanova, senior Dana Tartazky led the team with 16 kills, while freshman Kim Maroon tallied a team-high 13 digs. Junior Chelsea Graman equaled the match-high with 49 assists and senior Whitney Harrington tied Ramdin for the lead in blocks with five.
The Red Storm returns to action tomorrow, when the team takes on the Pirates of Seton Hall University. The match is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at Carnesecca Arena and will feature a live video broadcast via StormTracker All-Access presented by AllState with commentary by Ralph Bednarczyk. The video feed can be obtained by .
