St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Xavier
Red Storm Drops BIG EAST Home Opener To Xavier
9/23/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Box Score (PDF)
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QUEENS, N.Y. - Playing its first home match in nearly three weeks, St. John's fell short to the Xavier Musketeers on Friday night, 3-1 (22-25, 16-25, 25-22, 23-25). This was only the first loss of the season for the Red Storm at Carnesecca Arena.
"We played a very solid Xavier team toe-to-toe, but just needed to stay aggressive at the end of sets," said Head Coach Joanne Persico.
St. John's (10-5, 1-1 BIG EAST) was a force in front of the net and showed why they rank in the top 15 in the nation in blocks per set, registering a season-high 17.5 blocks. The Johnnies also forced 32 errors and held Xavier (7-7, 1-0 BIG EAST) to a .150 attacking percentage. However, the Red Storm struggled offensively against the Musketeers, as they hit at a season-low clip of .102.
It was another stellar defensive performance from Danisha Moss, who picked up a career-high six solo blocks and had 10 total blocks for the second time in the last three matches. A Preseason All-BIG EAST selection, Julia Cast led the Johnnies with 12 kills and picked up six total blocks, almost matching her career-high of seven from last year against Iona.
Another Johnny picked up a career-high against the Musketeers, with Lexie Lobdell posting nine digs, while Amanda Sanabia also had nine digs. Sophomore outside hitter Margherita Bianchin was close to a double-double with nine kills and eight digs and coming off the bench Delaney D'Amore produced eight digs.
The Johnnies started the match on a tear, opening up a 12-5 run after picking up three blocks and five kills. Xavier came right back, going on a 16-6 run to take a 20-18 lead in the opening-set. Trailing 24-20, St. John's picked up back-to-back points on errors by the Musketeers, but Xavier took the last point of the frame to take a 1-0 advantage.
Xavier was in control of the next set, taking the frame 25-16, as they led wire-to-wire. Moss picked up three of her six kills in the second stanza and Hope Demel came off the bench and distributed all six of her assists in the frame.
St. John's kept the streak alive of not falling in straight-sets this year with a big comeback in the third set to win, 25-22. The Musketeers led 16-10, but the Red Storm went on a 10-4 run to even the match at 20. After a couple of errors by Xavier, St. John's led 24-22 and Cast finished the set with a kill to take the frame. The Red Storm posted five solo blocks in the third set and has now out blocked its opponent in all, but four matches this season.
The St. John's comeback fell short in the fourth set with the Musketeers winning the set 25-23 and the match, 3-1. Abbey Bessler picked up five of her match-high 19 digs in the last set and also recorded a double-double, adding 10 kills.
Next up, St. John's will host another conference foe from the Midwest when it takes on Butler tomorrow at 5 p.m. at Carnesecca Arena. This match can also be seen on ESPN3.
