Kaleigh Ritter and Courtney Hunter blocking Saint Xavier University Athletics
Saint Xavier University Cougars defeated the Trinity Christian College Trolls on Tuesday, Sept. 24. This was a very important game for the Cougars, as this was their first meeting with the Trolls this season in which they wanted to make a statement against another CCAC team.
These two competitive teams were last matched in Nov. 2023 in the CCAC tournament quarterfinals. Unfortunately things did not go according to plan for the Cougars as they got destroyed by the Trolls. They lost the second and third set by scores of 25-14 and 25-13.
It’s safe to say that the Cougars have been itching to get revenge on theTrinity team that has appeared to perform much weaker this season than in years past. The Trolls are in the bottom half of the CCAC this year with an overall record of 3-14 and a conference record of 2-4.
The match started off fairly competitive with the Cougars and Trolls trading points. Once the Cougars made it to double digits, they started to run away with the first set. Once the Cougars hit 10 points, they would go on a 15-7 service run to close out the first set 25-16.
The main reason the Cougars won this set so handedly was because the Trolls hit at a horrendous efficiency of -.032%, which is so bad that it’s almost impressive. All the Cougars had to do for this set was not hit at a negative efficiency and the set would be practically handed to them.
Opposite hitter Courtney Hunter had an incredible first set, stacking up a total of six total kills. Outside hitter Connie Lebel was recently awarded the CCAC Attacker of the Week award and also contributed with three kills and an ace.
The second set began very similarly to the first with the two teams going back and forth. Neither team was really able to break away until the Cougars hit ten points. Once they hit 10 points they were able to go on a 7-2 run making the score 17-10.
After this run, the Cougars were easily able to finish off the second set and ended up winning 25-18. The Trolls were surprisingly able to hit better this set with an efficiency of .194%. Despite this performance, the Trolls got completely outplayed by the Cougars who hit an impressive match high of .306%.
When the two teams moved on to the third set, it seemed the Trolls felt a sense of urgency as they jumped out to a 10-6 lead. The Cougars came out and played a very sloppy game with six of the Trolls’ 10 points coming from their own errors.
The Cougars kept clawing at the lead and brought the score to 10-15. After this, it seemed the Trolls wanted to return the favor back to the Cougars and committed four errors of their own. Plus a service ace by Lebel and the game was all tied up at 15-15.
The set would remain close for the rest of the game but the Cougars were able to muster a win with a close final score of 27-25. This set was very close with six total lead changes and the two teams having similar hitting efficiencies. The Cougars hit at a .120% and the Trolls hit a .109%.
Kaleigh Ritter had an incredible performance, recording her third double double on the season with 29 assists and 13 total digs. Lebel was also able to record a double double with her 14 digs and 11 kills, which is her sixth double double of the season.
Hunter also contributed in this match scoring 14 kills, which was a match high on a .407% hitting efficiency. Hunter, who has made the move to the opposite this season, has performed very well at her new position and is a main reason why this team is winning games this season.
By winning this game, the Cougars’ overall record improves to 7-9 and they manage to stay undefeated in conference. The only team above the Cougars right now are the Viterbo University V-Hawks who are currently 17th in the nation.
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