Red Storm Falls to Georgetown in Five Sets

Wednesday, September 19

Washington, D.C. (McDonough Arena)

5:00 PM

St. John's University

11-5, 0-1BE

Georgetown

8-5, 1-0BE

St. John's

Georgetown

9/19/2018 8:53:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Di Maulo notches career assist 3,000 in BIG EAST opener

By: WASHINGTON

Box Score

The Red Storm volleyball team fell in five sets on the road to Georgetown to open BIG EAST play on Wednesday.

St. John's forced a fifth set after going down two sets to one and had the Hoyas at match point before dropping the final frame 16-14. The Red Storm had won eight-consecutive matches against Georgetown entering the match with the last loss against the Hoyas coming in 2013.

Erica Di Maulo finished the match with 36 assists and in the fifth set picked up career assist 3,000 in the contest. The junior is the fifth in program history to accomplish that feat and currently trails Deniz Mutlugil, who preceded Di Maulo from 2012-15, by 304 assists for fourth on the all-time list.

Efrosini Alexakou posted her second double double of the season (15 kills, 11 digs) and has now had at least a share of the team lead in kills in four consecutive matches. Kayley Wood added 10 kills while Hanna Wagner posted a team-high seven blocks.

The Johnnies dropped the first set 25-21 despite three kills from Wood. The Red Storm fell behind 7-3 early before tying it at 10-10. St. John's would tie it again at 13 but never took the lead in the opening frame.

The Red Storm rebounded in set two hitting .333 as a team. Alexakou led the way with six kills in eight attempts in the second frame, hitting .625. Nia Diaz added two kills in the frame. The redshirt junior led the BIG EAST in hitting percentage entering the contest and ended the match with a .545 clip. With the score tied 7-7, Di Maulo recorded a service ace that gave the Johnnies the lead for good in the second. St. John's would end the match on a 10-3 run that gave them the set 25-17.

Georgetown won set three by the same score after the Red Storm recorded just five kills compared to nine errors. The Johnnies were able to pull within three at 15-12 thanks to back-to-back attack errors by the Hoyas, but Georgetown responded with a 5-1 run that put St. John's behind for good.

St. John's forced a fifth set when the team took the fourth 25-20. Amanda Sanabia recorded nine of her team-leading 17 digs in the frame. Rachele Rastelli and Ariadni Kathariou added three and two blocks, respectively, in the set. The fourth went back and forth, but with a 20-19 lead, kills by Diaz and Wood sparked a 5-1 run to extend the match to a deciding frame.

In the fifth, the Red Storm had a 5-4 lead when Di Maulo passed a ball that ended in a kill by Rastelli for the milestone assist. The Hoyas have been a familiar foe for the setter's milestones as Georgetown was on the receiving end of career assist 2,000 for the Milan, Italy, native.

The Johnnies had match point up 14-13 after a ball-handling error by Georgetown before the Hoyas took the next three points and handed St. John's a loss in the conference opener.

St. John's will return to Carnesecca Arena for a match against Xavier at 7 p.m. on Friday.