They were calling it a Pink Out. One thing is for certain: the University of St. Thomas volleyball team turned the lights out on LeTourneau Friday with a 25-12, 25-10, 25-16 sweep in the Jerabeck Activity & Athletic Center on the Dig Pink/End Cancer Night.
Sporting their pink shirts in an effort to raise awareness for cancer, the Celts (18-5) made quick work of the Yellowjackets in front of spirited Family Weekend crowd.
"It's nice to play in front a loud home crowd that gets you going, and gives you something to be excited about with it," Celts coach Keanne Burt said. "There was a lot going on tonight. They had the tailgate to start, and it really brought out a lot of students. With it being Family Weekend for the university, there was a lot of parents and students, so it was nice."
The Celts hit .306 on a night they bounced back from a tight loss last weekend, which snapped a six-match win streak.
"It's a little confidence booster to come back from a loss, especially going into a conference match tomorrow," Burt said. "The things that we've been implementing in practice, just to be able to put 'em in to play without it counting against our conference record is a really nice bonus."
UST hit a .355 in the first set, while holding LeTourneau (7-19) to a -.026 attack percentage. The Celts converted all but three of their 12 sideout chances in the opening set.
"It felt like we were able to bring our game back together, and focus on what we've been working on in practice, which is running our middles more and get those connections back on track," senior middle blocker Sophie Rigaut said. "Also, our blocking was a lot better this week, which is what we focused on. So it was really nice to see all the work from practice be fruitful and carry over in the game."
The Celts outblocked the Yellowjackets, 8-1.
St. Thomas overcame one tie early in the second set, and then put things on cruise control in serving up a dominant performance. Serve was the operative word as the Celts fired up 10 aces to the Yellowjackets one.
"Serving is really important to our entire team," said sophomore setter Kelsie Walker, who had three aces. "When you're behind the line, it's just you, so you're held accountable for whatever happens to that ball. That's the initiation of the ball, so if you can start off strong, you're going to be more successful with more aggressive serves. We definitely want that ace every single time."
It was the sixth time this season the Celts have served up 10 or more aces in a match. UST has 146 this season.
"We tried to work on being more aggressive with our serves, kind of challenging their perimeter lines with our serves and hopefully getting more aces from that," Burt said. "From that challenge, it's a little risky. We did have six serving errors tonight, but we did have 10 aces, so that was nice to kind of balance that. As long as our ace-to-error ratio is obviously more aces, we're OK with it."
The Celts aced the test in this one, alright. Lauren Fernandez-Miller and Chelsea Guerrero each had two aces, while Hannah Westerlage Mariah Regan and Rigaut had one apiece.
St. Thomas never trailed in the third set, despite LeTourneau hanging with the Celts through the first 20 serves. UST put away 13 kills in 32 swings in the final set, while the Yellowjackets had 10 kills in 35 attempts.
UST's Brooke Garcia had nine kills and three blocks, while hitting .304. Bresha Orange had 11 kills. Rigaut had four kills and five blocks. Emily Jaroszewski, Kayden Thomas each had five kills and Alyssa Ajlouny added four. Jaroszewski hit .571, and Orange .429. Walker finished with 16 assists and six digs to go along with her three aces. Westerlage had 12 assists and five digs. Fernandez-Miller had 19 digs, while Regan and Guerrero each had six.
Kianna Crow had 11 kills and nine digs for LeTourneau, which hit .020 for the match. The Yellowjackets were held to an -.056 attack percentage in the second set.
Rigaut, who is recovering from a hand injury, was a big presence at the net with timely putaways and a dynamite block.
"It's been a journey," she said of coping with the injury. "It's slowly coming back. It basically felt like I had to start from scratch because I missed a whole month, so my preseason was for nothing. So it feels really good to come back, and tonight felt especially good.
"It was a really nice crowd that we had. I hope that they're going to come more often because it's always nice to be gassed up, and see the energy coming from the stands, too. They definitely got us on track and gave us some momentum."
St. Thomas returns to Red River Athletic Conference play Saturday in a 1 p.m. home match with the University of the Southwest.
"We just have to stay focused on what we practice every day," Walker said. "We worked really hard, so it's really nice for it to show when we're playing. We just got to keep that going. We play like we practice, and we practice like we play.
"We're ready to win a championship. We think this is our year, and we're ready to take it all. We had a rough start, but we're ready to go to the end and get that ring."
Jim McCurdy
