The women’s volleyball team celebrates win against TCC SXU Athletics
Since starting the season 0-5, the women’s volleyball team has won six of their last seven games to get their season record to .500 and improve to 4-1 in Chicago Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) play.
In addition to a big win, freshman setter Abbey Opilka was named CCAC setter of the week and junior setter/libero Kaleigh Ritter was named CCAC defender of the week.
Junior outside hitter Connie LeBel was the star of the match, her statline was more than impressive and almost resulted in a triple double, including a match-leading 20 kills in addition to 12 digs, nine service aces, an assist, and a block.
As noted by Saint Xavier Athletics, LeBel’s nine service aces are the most by a Cougar in the same game since 2001, when Melissa Ferguson had 14 against Judson University. The program record for service aces in a game is 15, held by Amy Horwath.
Sophomore outside hitter Jenny Jensen and Junior opposite hitter Abby Gentile led the match with two blocks each. Senior middle blocker Courtney Hunter recorded a match leading four blocks.
On Tuesday the 19, the Cougars faced off against Trinity Christian College at the Shannon Center, a game that carried a lot of weight for both teams.
While Saint Xavier has had their points of struggle early in the season, Trinity Christian has had their fair share of struggles as well, entering this game with a 4-10 record, 3-2 in conference. Both teams were in need of a win to get back on the right path before the season escaped their hands, it was going to be a dogfight from start to finish and that is exactly what fans got.
Set one established the tone for the game, back and forth for most of the match with TCC and SXU knowing how high the stakes were for their team.
The Cougars rallied late for five straight to take a 22-21 lead but the Trolls tied it back up at 22. SXU took a 23-22 lead but it did not last long, Trinity Christian scored three straight to take the first set of the night.
Set two started off the same with lots of back and forth action, but TCC pulled away with a 21-15 lead and did not let the Cougars back in, the set ending with a 25-17 score.
With their backs against the wall, Saint Xavier played some of the best volleyball they have all season, winning three straight sets to walk away with a victory.
The third set was another nailbiter that was hard fought from both teams on both sides of the ball.
Neither team ever surrendered during this one, the largest lead of the set was just four points when Trinity scored three in a row to go up 9-5.
Play alternated at the end of the third set and eventually led to a 26-24 victory for the Cougars.
The fourth set was a drastically different story from all the other sets. Saint Xavier went on to win this 25-6 courtesy of early game heroics from everyone.
SXU scored 16 straight points to go up 17-1, completely squashing any momentum Trinity Christian thought they had and putting away this set very early.
LeBel held serve in the 16-0 run which included six straight service aces. It was a dominant performance from LeBel all around, from start to finish.
Entering the fifth set, the energy in the Shannon Center was through the roof, fans on the edge of their seats knowing just 15 points (win by two) were needed to win this set.
There was more back and forth action to begin before Saint Xavier took an 8-4 lead, but Trinity was not out yet and came back to tie the game at eight.
The Trolls then went to score six straight points and took a 14-9 lead. Trinity Christian now only needing one point to win, things now looked bleak for the Cougars.
But much like TCC, Saint Xavier was not done yet and scored six straight points themselves to take a 15-14 lead, needing just one more point to win.
A couple ties later, LeBel came up big with two kills, assisted Ritter, to finally put the Trolls down for good.
There is a lot of potential with this Saint Xavier volleyball team and it looks like they are starting to pull things together. The Cougars’ next game is Thursday, Sept. 28, against CCAC opponent Roosevelt University at the Shannon Center. The game is scheduled for a 7 pm start.