St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Columbia
St. John's Places Third At Columbia Invitational
9/17/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
NEW YORK - After picking up a pair of wins, including the program's 350th, on the opening day of the Columbia Invitational Friday, the St. John's volleyball team returned to action Saturday, but lost matchups against Iowa and tournament host Columbia to place third at the event. Iowa, who finished first at the tournament, defeated St. John's, 3-1 (21-25, 25-18, 21-25, 18-25), and Columbia topped the Red Storm by the same margin, 3-1 (25-18, 25-27, 21-25, 23-25), in the nightcap. St. John's twin sisters Paulina Piegza and Sabina Piegza were both tabbed to the all-tournament team.
St. John's is now 9-8 overall entering BIG EAST play next weekend, and finishes out its regular season tournament schedule with an 8-6 mark. It was the program's first meeting with Iowa (10-3) and STJ now leads the Columbia (6-4) series, 5-2, following the loss. With the win, the Lions snapped a three-match losing streak against the Red Storm.
Senior captains Darlene Ramdin and Paulina Piegza led the Red Storm offensively with 27 and 24 kills, respectively on the day. Piegza finished the tournament with a team-best .369 attacking percentage. Her twin sister, Sabina, recorded a double-double in every match of the tournament, finishing with 165 assists and 50 total digs. Ramdin led St. John's with a 3.54 kills per set average.
In the opening match, St. John's had the statistical advantage over the Hawks in kills, hitting percentage, assists and digs, but 11 aces and 10 team blocks from Iowa proved to be the difference. Junior setter Sabina Piegza led the Red Storm with her third-straight double-double, tallying a career-high 50 assists and 19 digs. Three St. John's student-athletes hit .333 or over in the match with Paulina Piegza leading the way at a .391 clip. Freshman outside hitter Aleksandra Wachowicz notched a .379 percentage, and Sabina Papala finished right at .333.
The Red Storm and Hawkeyes traded points to start the match, until Iowa went on a 7-2 run to take a 10-5 lead over St. John's. The Hawks extended its run to 10-3, but the Red Storm responded with a 3-0 rally of its own, including two Wachowicz kills, to cut the first-set deficit to 13-9. Ramdin rolled a kill into the back right corner of the Hawks' court to pull within three, 16-13. Iowa used a 4-0 run to go up 20-13, and STJ responded with five-straight points to pull within two, 21-19. Iowa notched three-consecutive points to force a set point, but a Hawks error and Yana Vavdiyuk kill brought STJ back to 24-21. Iowa setter Nikki Daily would put the frame away with her only kill of the set to give the Hawks a 25-21 win and a 1-0 lead in the match.
A trio of Red Storm hitters notched four kills apiece and Sabina Piegza recorded 12 helpers and a set-high seven digs to lead St. John's back to even with the Hawks with a 25-18 second-set win. Ramdin, Wachowicz and Paulina Piegza all had four kills. Paulina Piegza and Wachowciz hit .667 and .333 respectively, and combined for only one attacking error in the frame.
Iowa hit .323 in a back and forth third set to prevail, 25-21, and take a 2-1 lead on the Red Storm. Iowa's Megan Eskew had five kills in the third to bring her match total to 14 after three stanzas. Ramdin added four kills for the Red Storm, committing just one error and hitting at a .429 clip. Eskew finished the match with a team-high 16 kills.
The Hawkeyes opened the fourth set on a 4-1 run and built up a five-point lead with a 14-9 advantage midway through the game. St. John's rallied to pull within two points, 18-16, but the Hawks closed out the match on a 7-2 run, which included two aces, to win the fourth stanza, 25-18, and defeat the Red Storm, 3-1. St. John's hit .324 in the set, with Anzelika Lukjanska tallying five kills and Wachowicz hitting .667.
After approximately a three-hour break, the Red Storm returned to action against tournament host Columbia and grabbed early control of the match with a decisive 25-18 win in the opening set. Sabina Piegza continued to add to her assists total with 12 in the opening frame, and her sister notched three kills and perfect 1.000 attacking percentage. Ramdin added four kills in the first and hit .571, and junior libero Gabriela Petkova totaled five first-set digs.
In an absolute thriller of a set that consisted of 15 ties and six lead changes, Columbia was able to string two points together to close out the match with a 27-25 advantage over the Red Storm and level the match at one set apiece. The Red Storm hit over .300 for the set as four hitters finished with three kills and three hit over .400 in the frame. Columbia's Madeline Rumer led the way in the game with six kills and a .556 hitting percentage.
The Lions rallied from a 5-2 deficit to overtake the Red Storm and win the crucial third set, 25-21. Columbia hit .244 in the set and used four huge team blocks to tilt action their way. Columbia's setter Colleen Brennan finished the set with 15 assists and Megan Gaughn notched six kills in the frame. The Piegza to Piegza connection was working for St. John's in the set as Paulina led STJ with five kills in the game and hit .385, while her sister recorded 10 assists.
Gaughn continued to roll in the fourth set, tallying eight kills to bring her total to a match-high 23, as Columbia topped the Red Storm, 25-23, in the fourth set to defeat St. John's, 3-1.
Defensively, Petkova led the Red Storm with 57 total digs on the tournament and Sabina Piegza followed close behind with 50. Senior Brunna Kronbauer finished the event with 30 digs, while both Ramdin and freshman Ashley Boursiquot led STJ with 10 blocks apiece.
St. John's will open its BIG EAST Conference slate on Friday, Sept. 23, when it travels to Louisville (8-3) to face the defending conference tournament champions in the first volleyball match at the KFC Yum! Center. The Red Storm will then travel to Cincinnati (7-5) to challenge the defending regular season BIG EAST champ on Sunday, Sept. 25 at 2 p.m.
