Players and fans enjoy the highs of the roller coaster when their hearts jump for joy and feel their hearts breaking when the unfortunate lows come. Last Tuesday night, the Saint Xavier University women’s volleyball team and their fans experienced a somewhat heartbreaking low.
The team went into last Tuesday’s game riding high on a four-game winning streak. They looked to continue their momentum against Roosevelt University in front of the home crowd.
The first game saw the Cougars jump out to a quick 8-3 lead en route to a 25-19 win to start the match out.
The second game saw the Cougars jump out to a 9-1 lead and the Cougars put a stranglehold on that game to win it 25-15.
The third game came and the Lakers of Roosevelt showed toughness and hustle in making it a close game. The game went back and forth and ended up being tied at 24 when the Cougars took a timeout.
After the timeout, the Lakers scored to set up a game point. Sophomore libero Lauren Young made three sensational digs during the rally, but the Cougars ended up falling 26-24. The Cougars were up still up two games to one going to the fourth game.
The Cougars got off to another great start as they jumped out 5-1 before Roosevelt called a timeout to stop momentum. The Cougars would start to pull away again at 18-11, but Roosevelt called another timeout and gathered themselves to make another comeback.
The Lakers would grind out a 27-25 victory in a very competitive fourth game to set up a match-deciding fifth game.
The first to fifteen takes home the “W” here, and Roosevelt continued their momentum as they handed the Cougars a gut wrenching loss, winning by a final score of 15-9. They took the match in five sets by winning three straight games after being down two games early on.
The Cougars were led by junior setter Kelli Shaffer, who continues her consistently great play. She finished with career highs in kills and digs with 39 and 21, respectively.
Her fellow co-captain, junior middle hitter Marie Hackert, also had a career match, finishing with a career high 14 kills on the night.
Sophomore middle blocker Heidi Gregerson finished with 12 kills and junior outside hitter Jessica Galotta finished with 13 kills, while junior libero Dominique Aramburu paced the defense with 27 digs.
Next up for the team after the tough loss was the CCAC crossover tournament in Bourbonnais, Ill.
The first match went well for the Cougars as they prevailed against Purdue University Calumet in three sets: 25-19, 25-14, 29-27.
Hackert and Gregerson led the team with 11 kills each. Sophomore right side hitter Meghan Falsey had nine kills and Shaffer had 33 assists and nine digs.
In the second match later that night, the Cougars faltered against Olivet Nazarene University. They lost in three sets: 25-15, 25-19, 25-17 to the Tigers.
The team struggled to generate much offense, posting 26 kills and 26 attack errors. Hackert did manage to have 11 kills and sophomore outside hitter Cassidy Sponsler did have 3 service aces for the team. Shaffer had 22 assists and Aramburu led the defense with 12 digs.
The next day of the tournament the team took on Purdue University North Central in their first match. The team dominated PUNC by winning in three sets: 25-9, 25-16, 25-18. The Cougars had a balanced attack during the match.
Sponsler, Hackert, and Falsey each had nine kills in the match and Heidi Gregerson was right behind them with eight kills.
Shaffer played an impressive game with 34 assists and five digs and junior defensive specialist Galotta had a team-high nine digs.
The last match the Cougars played in the tournament was against Trinity Christian College. The Trolls took down the Cougars in three sets: 25-14, 25-12, 25-17.
The team struggled on offense again, posting 26 kills and 22 attacking errors in the match for a low attacking percentage of .040.
Shaffer led the team with 18 kills and seven digs and Aramburu led the defense with 11 digs.
Last Tuesday night the Cougars went on the road to take on Judson University but ended up faltering in three sets: 33-31, 25-19, 25-20.
Next up was a home game against IIT that the Cougars won in four sets: 25-22, 25-18, 18-25, 25-16. Galotta had 11 kills and 16 digs for the team and Shaffer helped her out with 38 assists and seven digs.
The team improved to a 10-10 record and 4-5 in conference play. Come join the team on their roller coaster ride. They play their next home game on Oct. 29.
Damone Griffin
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