Red Storm Takes Down Siena in Three Sets

Friday, August 31

Ithaca, N.Y. (Newman Arena at Bartels Hall)

5:00 PM

St. John's University

4-0

Siena

0-3

St. John's

Siena

8/31/2018 7:26:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

The Johnnies win fifth-consecutive match to start season.

By: Ithaca, N.Y.

The St. John's volleyball team continued its successful start to the 2018 campaign with a three-set victory over Siena in the first match of the Cornell Invitational.

The Red Storm (5-0) took the first set 25-13 in an efficient frame offensively for the Johnnies. St. John's hit a .314 clip compared to -.028 for the Saints (0-4). Ariadni Kathariou recorded her first career service ace, the first of four in the match for the freshman middle blocker.

St. John's battled in the second set after falling behind early 8-3. The Johnnies would then go on a 13-9 run to cut the lead to one at 17-16. After tying the set at 20-20 a kill by Rachele Rastelli gave the Red Storm its first lead of the frame. Rastelli recorded seven kills in the set two and finished with a team-high 13. The two teams traded points until back-to-back kills by Erica Di Maulo and Jordan McCalla gave St. John's a 27-25 victory. Di Maulo hit a .600 clip recording seven kills, 19 assists and six digs.

The Johnnies controlled the third set from start to finish and used a 7-2 run to take a 10-5 lead with Yanjiao Zhao delivering three assists and a service ace during that span. The senior setter finished the match with six assists. The Johnnies also held the Saints to seven kills in the third frame and a clip of .150.

The Red Storm hit a clip of .289 as a team in the match and saw four players hit over .300. Defensively, Rastelli and Nia Diaz led the way with three blocks each while Amanda Sanabia had 12 digs to lead the Johnnies.

The team will return to action tomorrow to play two matches and finish the Cornell Invitational. St. John's will start with Buffalo at 1 p.m. before finishing against host-school Cornell at 7 p.m.