St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
LIU
St. John's Slips Past LIU, 3-2
9/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 22, 2009
QUEENS, N.Y. - St. John's pulled off its second consecutive 3-2 victory at home, defeating Long Island in Taffner Field House on Tuesday evening. The Blackbirds (3-11) captured the first two sets before the Red Storm (7-9) took over to win the match in the final three sets.
The first set featured 13 tie scores, but LIU never gave up the lead, winning the set, 25-21.
It was the same story in the second set as St. John's trailed for its entirety, surrendering to the Blackbirds, 25-23 to give LIU a 2-0 advantage in the match.
The Red Storm gained its first lead of the match at 12-11 in the third stanza before tying the score nine more times in the set. Three kills by junior Kun Song scored three of the last four points for the Red Storm as it won its first set of the match, 25-22.
Sophomore Darlene Ramdin opened the fourth set for St. John's with back-to-back kills to sway the momentum. STJ held a 17-13 lead as Gabriela Petkova served up six straight points for the Red Storm, earning a service ace and a kill while forcing four errors from the Blackbirds. Ramdin and Ruisa Scheffel provided the set-ending kills to send the match to a fifth and final set after a 25-15 win in the fourth.
Three LIU errors gave St. John's a 3-1 lead in the final set. A kill by Song pushed the Red Storm towards a 9-7 lead before an attack error and two Ramdin kills made it 12-10. A point from Song stretched the lead to three and a service ace from Kayla Motoyama set up STJ for match-point. An attack error would hand the Red Storm the match, 15-11.
Ramdin led STJ with 23 kills, a pair of service aces and four blocks. Song tallied her seventh double-double of the season with 14 kills and 14 digs. Rookie Ashley Asing led the squad with 17 digs, while classmate Petkova notched 52 assists, eight digs, three aces and four kills.
Svetlana Simic led the Blackbirds with 21 kills, 17 digs and a pair of aces.
St. John's hosts DePaul for its BIG EAST season-opener at home on Sept. 25 in Taffner Field House. Game time is slated for 7 p.m. The Red Storm will close the weekend with a 2 p.m. match-up with Notre Dame on Sept. 27.
