St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Cincinnati
Cincinnati Tops St. John's In Four Sets
10/14/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 14, 2012
QUEENS, N.Y. - After being edged in five sets by No. 15 Louisville on Friday, the Red Storm looked to bounce back with a win over Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon. However, Cincinnati (8-13, 6-2) continued their solid play in the BIG EAST as they defeated St. John's (17-6, 4-3) by a score of 3-1 (25-14, 19-25, 25-18, 25-21). The Red Storm fell just short of a rally in a tightly played fourth set that saw eight tied scores and six lead changes. With the loss, St. John's moves into a tie for fifth place in the conference with Villanova.
Senior Jordanne Scott, a two-time All-BIG EAST First Team honoree, had a match-high 22 kills and eight blocks and also registered a double-double with a 13 dig effort. Cincinnati out-hit St. John's, .257 to .156, and out-blocked the Red Storm, 11-7.
Following a 25-14 first set loss, St. John's rebounded to take the second set, 25-19, behind the serving efforts of freshman Karin Palgutova. In the set, Palgutova registered a pair of aces, one of which clinched set-victory, and also notched four kills. Senior Milica Krstojevic contributed a trio of kills, two of which started a run of four-straight points that began when St. John's had just a 16-15 lead.
The Bearcats answered back by winning the third set, 25-18, and jumping out to a 4-1 lead in the fourth set, but freshman Shawna-Lei Santos promptly notched a kill and Palgutova followed up with a service ace to spark a 7-1 run to put the Red Storm up, 8-5, and force a Cincinnati timeout. However, the Bearcats responded by tying the score at 13-13 and re-taking the lead on three consecutive kills by Jordanne Scott. St. John's then rallied to tie the score at 18-18, but the Bearcats went back on top, 22-18, on four-straight points. St. John's managed to narrow the deficit to two points, but the attempt to force a fifth set was squelched with a St. John's attack error and a kill by Emily Hayden.
Palgutova, who entered the weekend in 12th place in the NCAA in service aces, notched four aces today to increase her season average to 0.52 per set. She also narrowly missed her fourth-career double-double with an 11 kill, nine dig performance.
Sophomore Aleksandra Wachowicz led the squad in both kills (13) and attack attempts (34) and also added three digs. Krstojevic was third on the team in kills with nine.
Senior setter Sabina Piegza dished out 31 assists and has now racked up at least 30 helpers in nine-straight matches. After registering 81 assists this weekend, Piegza needs just 102 more to move into sixth place on the program's all-time list.
For just the third time in 11 instances this season, St. John's lost a match in which senior Gabriela Petkova and Santos both had double-digit digs. Today, Petkova had a team-high 21 digs while Santos picked up 10.
UP NEXT
St. John's will hit the road for a pair of BIG EAST matches next weekend. The Red Storm will take on Pittsburgh (12-10, 3-5) on Friday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. and USF (12-9, 4-4) on Sunday, Oct. 21 at 2 p.m.
