St. John’s Splits Opening Day in Albany

Friday, September 3

Albany, N.Y. (University Gym)

11 a.m.

St. John's University

1-3,0-0Big East

UAlbany

2-3,0-0America East

St. John's (NY)

Albany (NY)

9/3/2021 10:17:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Box Score - U Albany (PDF)Box Score - Cornell (PDF)Photo Gallery Photo Gallery 2

The Johnnies won their first match of the season at UAlbany before falling to Cornell

ALBANY, N.Y. (Sept. 3, 2021) – The St. John's volleyball team won its first match of the season at UAlbany 3-1, before falling to Cornell, 3-1, at SEFCU Arena on Friday. The matches were the first for St. John's in the Crowne Plaza Albany- The Desmond Hotel Volleyball Classic.

The Red Storm moved to 1-4 on the season.

GAME 1

After dropping the first set, 27-25, St. John's won each of the next three to defeat UAlbany and pick its first win of the season. The final three set scores were 25-19, 25-14 and 25-14, respectively, all in favor of the Red Storm.

Rastelli Rachele led the Johnnies offensively, recording a match-high 23 kills and posting a .488 hitting percentage. Rastelli also notched 12 digs and two assists on the match.

Eleonora Tosi recorded 13 kills, the second highest total in the match. Tosi added in a match-high four service aces while Iliana Rodriguez contributed three. Giorgia Walther chipped in a pair of service aces and tallied 10 kills.

Ariadni Kathariou recorded the lone Red Storm block while also adding in five kills.

The match started off as a back and forth affair. With the opening set tied at four, the Great Danes (2-3) rattled off three straight points to move ahead 7-4. St. John's battled back to knot the score at 11, the first of seven ties over the next several minutes. Trailing 23-20 late in the set, St. John's scored three straight points to level the count. The set would even again at 24 and 25 before the Great Danes took advantage of an attack error and a service ace to claim the first set.

St. John's and UAlbany traded blows early in the second set, as the Johnnies jumped ahead 10-6 before the Great Danes tied the score at 15 with a Danielle Tedesco kill and forced a St. John's timeout. With the score tied at 17 a short while later, Amariis Garcia landed a kill to send the Johnnies on an 8-2 run to win the set, 25-19.

The third set was all St. John's, as the Red Storm used an early 7-1 run to take a 16-6 lead midway through the set following back-to-back kills from Kathariou. UAlbany narrowed the lead back down to seven, 16-9, with three straight points out of a timeout, but that was as close as the Great Danes would get before St. John's closed out the set, 25-14.

After trading points to start the fourth set, the Johnnies scored eight of the next 10 to move ahead 9-3. The Great Danes shaved the lead down to three, 11-8, before kill by Tosi kicked off a 9-2 spurt as part of a larger 14-5 run to capture the set, 25-14, and the match, 3-1.

GAME 2

The Red Storm was able to capture the first set against Cornell, 28-26, but failed to grab the remaining three, as the Big Red took sets two, three and four by scores of 27-25, 25-23 and 25-19, respectively.

Tosi landed a match-high 21 kills to go along with a .308 hitting percentage. That effort shattered her previous career-high of seven set against Stony Brook on Feb. 14, 2021. She also added in five digs and one block.

Rastelli followed with 15 kills and a .213 hitting percentage. Wiktoria Kowalczyk notched a team-high 47 assists while Kathariou captured one block.

After falling behind 8-4 in the first set, St. John's responded with a 6-2 burst to tie the game at 10. The remainder of the set went back and forth before the Big Red (1-0) jumped ahead, 24-21. With the Johnnies facing set point, Rastelli and Walther each recorded two kills to put St. John's in the driver's seat, 25-24. St. John's needed a few extra points to close the set, as a Rastelli kill and a Cornell attack error helped secure a 28-26 Red Storm win.

The second set was tied at eight a side before the Johnnies went off on a 10-4 spurt, opening up an 18-12 lead on Walther's third kill of the set. Cornell responded with a 9-3 burst to tie the game at 21. The game would tie again at 24 and 25 before Cornell rattled off two points to win the set, 27-25.

Like each of the first two sets, the third was closely contested, but St. John's maintained a slight advantage for a majority of the frame. The Red Storm held a set-high four-point lead on five occasions, the last of which saw the Johnnies take a 23-19 lead on a Rodriguez ace and force a Cornell timeout. After that stoppage, the Big Red scored six unanswered points to take the set, 25-23.

After the two teams traded points early in the fourth set, Cornell went on a 14-6 tear to open a commanding 20-12 lead. The Johnnies responded by rattling off five straight points, pulling with three, 20-17, before the Big Red tallied five of the next seven to take the set, 25-19, and win the match, 3-1.

The Red Storm will close out the Crowne Plaza Albany- The Desmond Hotel Volleyball Classic on Saturday afternoon with a 4 p.m. match against Colgate.