St. John’s Mounts Comeback to Take Down Princeton, 3-2

Friday, September 13

University Park, Pa. (Rec Hall)

4 p.m.

St. John's University

6-2,0-0Big East

Princeton

2-3,0-0Ivy League

Princeton

St. John's (NY)

St. John’s Mounts Comeback to Take Down Princeton, 3-2

9/13/2024 9:03:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Erin Jones registered the second triple-double in program history

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The St. John's volleyball team came back from down, 2-0, to reverse sweep Princeton, 3-2, behind the second triple-double of Erin Jones's career on Friday afternoon to kick off the Penn State Invitational inside Rec Hall.

St. John's (6-2) fell behind two sets to none, before storming back to take the final three and claim its second reverse sweep in seven days. The scores of the sets were 14-25, 23-25, 25-20, 25-22 and 15-13.

Erin Jones put together the second triple-double in program history and of her career with 13 kills, 26 assists, and 12 digs against the Tigers. The junior also tallied five blocks. The Albuquerque, N.M., native is the 13^th player in NCAA Division I and the first player in the BIG EAST to register a triple-double this season.

Lucrezia Lodi was fantastic for the Red Storm offensively, racking up a team-high 14 kills with eight digs and three blocks.

Kya Harris led the Red Storm in rejections for the first time in her career, earning a season-high six blocks with a kill. Giorgia Walther tacked on 13 kills with five digs and two service aces.

Ludovica Zola earned on a career-high four services aces with eight kills at a 53.8 percent clip and four blocks. Wiktoria Kowalczyk registered 21 helpers while Rashanny Solano Smith logged 10 digs and two aces in the contest.

The match started off at a 4-4 stalemate, but Princeton (2-3) went on a 9-2 run to lead, 13-6. With the Tigers up 17-9, the two teams went on trading points, but the Red Storm couldn't develop enough momentum to make a substantial run, as the Tigers closed the frame, 25-14.

The Johnnies started the second set on fire, rallying to a 10-5 lead and forcing a Princeton timeout. The two teams went back-and-forth until the Tigers strung together an 8-3 spurt, knotting the frame at 23. Princeton finished off the second game with back-to-back kills, winning it 25-23 and taking a 2-0 edge in the match.

A barn burner of a third stanza, which featured eight ties and seven lead changes, built to a 10-9 Princeton lead. The Red Storm registered five straight points that featured kills from Walther and Jones to go ahead by four, 14-10. Despite Tiger pressure, St. John's used a 4-1 spurt to lead by five, 21-16, but Princeton didn't go away quietly with a 4-1 stretch of its own, cutting its deficit down to two, 22-20. The Johnnies weren't deterred, closing out the set with three straight points capped by a Walther slam, to win 25-20. Lodi led the third frame with seven kills.

Both programs exchanged blows to start the fourth frame working to a 6-6 tie. St. John's found a spark after Jones and Zola each fired a kill to engineer a three-point cushion, 9-6. Princeton took a slim one-point edge after a 4-0 rally until Lodi pounded a kill into the floor to even things at 12. Down 13-12, the Tigers went on another 4-0 stretch that put them up, 16-13. The Johnnies responded by orchestrating a 6-1 run, capitalizing on four Princeton errors to hold a 19-17 advantage. The Red Storm remained in the driver's seat, fending off the Tigers on two set-points to even the match and eventually take the fourth set, 25-22.

St. John's raced out to a 7-4 lead at the start of the decisive fifth game, but Princeton immediately logged five straight points to take a 9-7 edge and burn both of the Red Storm's timeouts. After fighting to knot the match at 13, the Johnnies used a Lodi ace and a Tiger attack error to take the final set and move to 6-2 on the year, 15-13.

St. John's will return to Rec Hall tomorrow when it takes on Duke and No. 3 Penn State at 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., respectively.