St. John’s Defeats Austin Peay and Lipscomb

Friday, September 17

Bowling Green, K.Y. (E.A. Diddle Arena)

11:30 a.m.

St. John's University

8-4,0-0Big East

Austin Peay

4-5,0-0OVC

St. John's (NY)

Austin Peay

9/17/2021 9:02:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Box Score – Austin Peay (PDF)Box Score – Lipscomb (PDF)

Red Storm goes 2-0 On the first day of the WKU Invitational

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (Sept. 17, 2021) –St. John's extended its winning streak to eight on the first day of the WKU Invitational, defeating Austin Peay and Lipscomb inside E.A. Diddle Arena.

The Red Storm swept Austin Peay (5-5) in three sets on Friday afternoon with set scores of 26-24, 25-20 and 25-20, respectively.

Later in the day, the Johnnies dropped the first set against Spring 2021 ASUN Champion Lipscomb (2-7), 25-21, before rallying to win three straight sets 25-17, 25-22 and 25-14, respectively.

The Red Storm's eight-game winning streak is the longest by a St. John's team since the 2012 squad won nine straight early in that campaign.

Game 1

Klara Mikelova paced St. John's with 14 kills on a .423 hitting percentage, 10 digs, and three blocks for her first double-double of the season.

Giorgia Walther contributed nine kills along with two blocks while Eleonora Tosi logged eight kills on a .467 percentage and one service ace. Rachele Rastelli hit six kills along with a service ace and two blocks.

Bree Martin and Sheena Yoshioka also recorded service aces. Ariadni Kathariou and Tiziana Baumrukova, the latter of whom dished out 40 assists, each notched a solo block.

In the first set, no team led by more than three and the score moved level 12 times before the final tie at 24. A kill by Walther would secure St. John's 25th point before an attack error gave the Red Storm the set, 26-24.

The second set was tied at six when Tosi landed a kill to start a 7-0 run for the Johnnies. Mikelova recorded two straight kills during the burst to help the Red Storm move ahead 13-6. Austin Peay responded with a 9-2 run to tie the set at 15. From there, the Red Storm rattled off five straight before eventually taking the set with that same five-point margin, 25-20.

The Governors were up 4-3 in the third set before an 11-3 run opened the game in St. John's favor, 13-7. Baumrukova recorded two kills during the run. Austin Peay battled back to get within one, 18-17, before the Johnnies closed the set, 25-20, and the match 3-0. Kathariou kills accounted for two of the Johnnies' final seven points.

Game 2

Three Johnnies finished with double-digit kills in the second game of the day.

After tallying only six kills in the first match of the tournament, reigning BIG EAST Player of the Week Rastelli recorded 17 kills to go along with three service aces and six block assists. It was a fellow Italian, however, who stole the show, as Tosi tallied 18 kills on just 29 attempts, good enough for a four-set hitting percentage of .552. The third member of the Johnnies' standout Italian trio, Walther, hit .355 and finished with 13 kills and two block assists.

Kathariou recorded the lone Red Storm solo block and assisted with eight others while Baumrukova distributed 52 assists and made only one error.

Mikelova tallied two aces while Yoshioka and Martin each added one.

After St. John's dropped the first set, 25-21, the two teams traded points to start the second stanza. With the score tied at 11, the Red Storm ripped off a 7-1 run to open a large lead before eventually closing out the set, 25-17. Rastelli recorded two kills and an ace for the Red Storm on that initial run while Walther added a pair of kills.

In the third set, the Johnnies were down 18-15 before a 7-2 run allowed them to take a 22-20 lead. Tosi tallied three of the Red Storms' seven points on the tear. Lipscomb tied the score at 22 before St. John's captured three straight points to win the third set, 25-22.

The Johnnies came out firing in the fourth frame, using a 9-2 run to jump ahead 16-7 near the midway mark of the set. Lipscomb would get no closer than seven the rest of the way as the Red Storm cruised to a 25-14 set victory to take the match, 3-1.

The Red Storm will face No. 23 Western Kentucky on Saturday at 2 p.m. to close the WKU Invitational.