St. John’s Falls to UC Santa Barbara, 3-2

Saturday, September 7

San Diego, Calif (Jenny Craig Pavilion)

6 p.m.

St. John's University

4-1,0-0Big East

UC Santa Barbara

2-3,0-0Big West

UC Santa Barbara

St. John's (NY)

St. John's took down Coppin State, 3-1, to close out the Red Storm Invitational

9/7/2024 9:31:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Erin Jones led the match with a season-high 21 kills

San Diego – The St. John's volleyball team fell to UC Santa Barbara, 3-2, at the Jack Talmadge Volleyball Classic on Saturday afternoon inside Jenny Craig Pavilion.

After winning the first two sets, St. John's (4-1) dropped the last three, failing to stave off UC Santa Barbara's (2-3) late comeback. The scores of the sets were 25-22, 26-24, 20-25, 12-25 and 12-15.

Erin Jones led the match with a season-high 21 kills on a 29.8 percent hitting clip and 24.5 points. The junior also tacked on nine digs, three assists, two service aces and two total blocks.

Magda Stambrowska notched 11 kills at a 38.1 attack percentage to go along with five digs and a team-high four blocks.

Giorgia Walther registered 15 kills, three block assists and an ace while Lucrezia Lodi tacked on nine kills and seven digs.

Wiktoria Kowalczyk tallied a match-high 49 helpers, eight digs, three blocks and two aces. Rashanny Solano Smith added a match-high 19 digs and three assists to the team's totals.

As a team, the Red Storm led the match with 58 assists and 57 digs. Both programs totaled 61 kills apiece. Additionally, the match featured 25 total ties and 11 lead changes across all five sets.

Jones led the way for St. John's in the first set with six kills on a 55.6 percent hitting clip. Santa Barbara opened the match with a 5-1 lead off a collection of aces and errors. The Gauchos kept control of their four-point lead, 11-7 until the Red Storm registered four straight scores to even the frame at 11-all. Both squads went back and forth through the middle of the period to a 19-19 tie, before the Johnnies went on a final 6-3 stretch to take the opening frame, 25-22.

Jones yet again paced the stanza with eight kills while Solano Smith tacked on six digs. St. John's kicked off the second set with an 8-4 advantage behind kills from Walther, Lodi, Jones and Stambrowska. Santa Barbara fought back with a 7-3 surge, knotting the frame up at 11-11. Tied at 14, the Gauchos used an ace and a Sophie Reavis kill to go up by two, 16-14 and force a Red Storm timeout. St. John's came out firing after the timeout, retying the set at 18-18. Battling late, 24-24, the Red Storm secured a highly contested second set, 26-24, on back-to-back Jones' aces, taking a 2-0 lead in the match.

Walther notched a set-high five kills in the third game. The contested play continued as the third set opened with an 8-8 tie. Layanna Green served up four straight points as the Gauchos took the lead, 12-8. The Red Storm went on a short 5-1 run, evening the frame at 13. Level at 16, Santa Barbara was able to grow a five-point, 24-19 lead with an 8-3 stretch, riding it to a 25-20 set three victory.

The Gauchos built a 10-5 lead to start the fourth game, forcing the Johnnies to burn two timeouts early. The Red Storm had no answers for Santa Barbara's attack, as it used an 11-4 run to go up by 10, 21-9. The Gauchos cruised through the rest of the set, winning it 25-12 to even the match.

Jones and Walther put down two kills each in the final stanza. Both squads battled to an early, 6-6 tie at the beginning of the final set. The Gauchos caught fire, capitalizing on back-to-back blocks to lead 8-6 before the teams switched sides. Every time the Red Storm, scored Santa Barbara answered right back, carrying the momentum they built in the last two sets to win the final game, 15-12.

St. John's will close out the Jack Talmadge Volleyball Classic tomorrow at 3 p.m. ET when it takes on No. 16 Arizona State at Jenny Craig Pavilion.