St. John's University Athletics
Red Storm Heads North for Albany Invitational
8/31/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Match Notes
Watch Live (Albany Match)
Live Stats (Albany Match)
Live Stats (Temple Match)
Live Stats (Colgate Match)
QUEENS, N.Y. - Coming off its second-straight Jack Kaiser Classic title and a 3-1 opening weekend, the St. John's volleyball team heads to New York's Capital Region for the Albany Invitational, with matchups against host-school Albany, Temple and Colgate.
The Johnnies begin their Labor Day Weekend with a Friday night showdown against the Great Danes at 7 p.m., before they take on Temple at 10:30 a.m. and Colgate at 4:30 p.m. the following day to wrap up the invitational. The match between St. John's and Albany can be seen live on AmericaEast.tv.
A 2017 unanimous Preseason All-BIG EAST selection, Erica Di Maulo was named MVP of the Jack Kaiser Classic last weekend for the second consecutive year. The 6-foot setter averaged 10.92 assists and 2.38 digs per set in the tournament while tallying eight aces to lead the BIG EAST. For her efforts in the four matches, the sophomore was chosen to the conference's Weekly Honor Roll for the third time in her young career.
In her first career collegiate matches, Jordan McCalla shined for the Red Storm as she provided the offense for the Johnnies with 3.54 kills per set over the four matches, including a 20-kill performance in the St. John's 3-1 victory over Sacramento State. The rookie from Grapevine, Texas, registered her first career double-double against the Hornets with 11 digs and hit at a .372 clip to help her earn a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
Joining Di Maulo and McCalla on the All-Tournament Team at the Kaiser Classic was sophomore Hanna Wagner, who leads the Red Storm with a .392 hitting percentage and in a tie for the team-high in blocks with Danisha Moss with 14. Julia Cast, a senior from Westbury, N.Y., led the Red Storm with 14 kills in the squad's season opener sweep over Holy Cross. In the match against New Hampshire, Cast once again carried the offense with a team-high 14 kills, in the straight-sets victory, to help clinch the Kaiser Classic title for the Johnnies.
Splitting time at libero, Delaney D'Amore and Amanda Sanabia both played terrific on the backline as they each averaged over four digs per set at the tournament. The veteran D'Amore produced a tremendous night against Sacramento State with a career-high 31 digs in the triumph, which were the most by a Red Storm player since Shawna-Lei Santos recorded 33 digs against Seton Hall on Oct. 30, 2014.
Albany will look for their first win this weekend after dropping three matches to tough opponents in No. 16 Michigan, Loyola Marymount and University of Southern California in Los Angeles last weekend at the USC/LMU Invitational. Redshirt sophomore middle blocker Akuabata Okenwa was named America East Player of the Week after she earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team and averaged 3.5 kills per set in the three matches. Sophomore Chloe Evering finished second on the squad last season in kills per set and was selected to the 2016 America East All-Rookie Team. The head coach of Albany, MJ Engstrom enters her 10th season with the program and is a three-time America East Coach of the Year. Under the guidance of Engstrom in 2016, the Great Danes went 16-10 and led the conference in digs and blocks per set. Last season, the Red Storm and the Great Danes squared off at the West Point Invitational as Albany came away with a 3-1 victory, despite a 43-assist and 13-dig performance by Di Maulo. The Great Danes own a 2-1 all-time series lead over the Johnnies.
Temple opened the season at the Maryland Invitational with a sweep over Northeastern, before falling to UMBC and Maryland in four and five sets, respectively. Leading the offense for the Owls is senior Izzy Rapacz, as she averages 2.67 kills per set and a team-high four aces. Last year, the outside hitter Rapacz was a First Team All-American Athletic Conference member as the Owls went 22-8 and a perfect 12-0 in true road matches. Temple returns four starters from 2016, where the squad won at least 20 games for the third consecutive season. A veteran laden team with five seniors, Kyra Coundourides conducts the offense for the Owls as she averages over eight assists per set. Iva Deak leads the squad with 1.91 blocks per set and as a team they are tied for eighth in the nation with 3.38 blocks per set. Temple leads the series with the Red Storm 3-1 and this will be the first match between the programs since 2015.
The Raiders dominated the Syracuse Tournament last weekend with a perfect 3-0 record and won nine of the 10 sets they played. The squad knocked off New York programs Niagara, Siena and Syracuse, while Head Coach Ryan Baker secured his 200th career win in the victory over the Orange. Currently sixth in the NCAA as a team in kills per set, Katie Stansbury tops the team in kills with 3.70 and Allie Lowe posts 3.60 kills per set. The backline of the Raiders is led by Peighton McRobie, who averages 5.40 digs per set to place her inside the top 40 in the country. Colgate's stellar start to the season puts them atop of the Patriot League in kills, assists, and opponent hitting percentage. Despite losing its last two matches to Colgate, St. John's owns a 5-3 all-time series advantage against the Raiders, including a 4-2 record in neutral matches.
