The Saint Xavier women’s volleyball team is headed to the NAIA Women’s Volleyball National Championship Tournament after upsetting No. 19 Central Methodist University, on Saturday the 19.
This is the third time in the last six years that SXU has advanced to the finals, their last appearances coming back-to-back in the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
Although it was a tremendous team effort in the comeback victory, senior outside hitter, Chloe Memenga, led the Cougars to the opening round victory.
Memenga put up a career high in kills (19) and digs (16) on the big stage, undoubtedly helping the Cougars move on from the opening round.
SXU was down two sets to none entering set three, backed into a corner with no room left for mistakes if they wanted to leave Missouri with a bid to the national tournament.
The first set was forgettable for the Cougars, losing 25-15 and recording a -5.9 hitting percentage.
It was close play for about half the set but after a 13-13 tie, Central Methodist was able to pull away, allowing just two more points to the Cougars in the first set.
SXU’s eight errors to the Eagles’ six surely didn’t help their efforts and it only piled on with CMU almost doubling the amount of kills the Cougars had (6-11).
Set two didn’t fare much better for the Cougars, losing 25-18.
SXU cleaned up their errors and increased their hitting percentage, but were still not a match for the heavy-hitting CMU Eagles.
But come set three, things began to turn around for Saint Xavier, finally recording more kills than Central Methodist (11-10) and having twice as less errors (6-12). SXU went on to win this set 25-21.
The Eagles took a much-needed timeout down 12-7 and were able to crawl back to tie the set at 17 and then take a one point lead, but the Cougars still had fight left in them.
A huge kill from senior outside hitter, Molly Hackett (assist Kaleigh Ritter), sparked a five-point scoring streak that brought SXU their first win of the match.
Set four was more of the same, a lot of back and forth scoring with neither team pulling away. Four points was the largest lead of the match; CMU led by four, three separate times (16-12, 18-14, 20-16).
The Cougars were able to fight back in a set that seemed as though it would never end. But a well-timed kill from junior middle blocker, Courtney Hunter (assist Ritter), followed by a service ace from senior outside hitter/defensive specialist, Kellylyn Kotowski, sealed the deal on the fourth set with a 29-27 victory.
Saint Xavier had managed to fight their way back into this game against CMU and the only question that remained, was who was going to finish the job?
The final set was wire-to-wire until the Cougars scored three straight to take a two point lead, when the Eagles coaches took a timeout in hopes of killing any momentum SXU had.
Their attempts of squandering SXU’s push for victory were feeble because the Cougars just kept scoring.
Saint Xavier closed the set in the most fitting way possible, a kill by Hackett assisted by Ritter, with a final score of 15-9.
The Cougars start pool play against No. 1 Eastern Oregon University today (11/30) at 10am, with live video available here.
Their second pool play game will take place on Thursday, December 1, also at 10am, against No. 20 Cornerstone University. Live video is available on the NAIA website.
The winner of each pool will advance to single-elimination Quarterfinals, which will begin Saturday, December 3. Semifinals follow on Monday the 5, and the National Championship is slated for a 7pm, on Tuesday the 6.
About Post Author
