Connie LeBel attempts a kill SXU Athletics
A difficult regular season for the women’s volleyball team did not change come CCAC tournament time, they lost in three straight sets to Trinity Christian College in the quarterfinals.
Scores from the match were: 25-27, 14-25, and 13-25. Saint Xavier finished the season 11-15 overall and 8-6 in conference.
Junior outside hitter Connie LeBel was the most impactful player of the game for Saint Xavier, recording a team-high eight kills, along with five digs and three service aces.
Freshman setter Abbey Opilka dished out a team-leading 18 assists, an ace, and five digs.
Sophomore outside hitter Tara Glynn posted a team-high and career best 11 digs, as well as four kills.
The Cougars gave a strong performance in the first set, holding several leads throughout, but could not finish out steady enough to win the first set.
At one point SXU held a 24-18 lead, just one point away from winning the first set. Regrettably, Trinity Christian found a way back into the game, scoring seven straight points to take a 24-25 lead.
Saint Xavier tried to show some life by tying the game at 25, but the Trolls had taken all the momentum by that point and put away the first set with back-to-back kills.
This type of sudden momentum shift happened a lot during the course of the season for SXU. They struggled to finish sets cleanly or lost control of the set altogether, allowing their opponents to take the set, or whole match, from them.
The second set started similarly to the first set, the first twelve points resulting in a 6-6 tie. But yet again TCC was able to rally and take a 6-10 lead before an SXU timeout. Though the timeout did not help much, Saint Xavier fell further into the deficit, down 10-18 at one point.
The Cougars scattered three more points in the remainder of the set, never gaining enough traction to rally.
Whatever energy SXU had through most of the first set was completely depleted, a turning point needing to be found if they wanted to salvage their season. And after the second set, it was clear the match belonged to Trinity Christian and Saint Xavier was going to have to take it from them.
SXU had a dismal start to the third set. Trinity jumped out to a 4-10 lead, forcing the Cougars to take a timeout.
The Cougars scored nine more points through the rest of the set coming out of the timeout, waving the white flag when the Trolls had a 10-21 lead.
Trinity Christian moved on to the CCAC semifinals, getting swept by St. Ambrose University. SAU went on to defeat Judson University in the CCAC championship game.
To say the least, it was a disappointing season for the women’s volleyball program. Riddled by injuries and inconsistent play, a three-peat as CCAC tournament champions was going to be hard from the beginning of the season. Truthfully, it was out of the question before their season even ended.
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