ST. LOUIS, MO. -- Principia's play today was the culmination of the soulful dynamics they've been building on defensive and offense this week, giving Webster and Blackburn a taste of the key ingredients to Principia's plan in making the SLIAC championship tournament.
Against Webster, ranked third in conference, Principia waged a competitive battle, bringing out a power game and working Webster's diggers.
Kiersten Andersen and
Sarah Howard both had six kills, and
Christine Nacewicz contributed five kills. Webster came out with a smart offense, but Principia fought back, letting nothing drop on defense.
Isabelle Tetu led the defense with 23 digs, and
Roxy Busch led blockers with four blocking assists and one single block. The hard fought match ended in close scores as Principia lost: 24-26, 19-25, and 22-25.
The second match began a bit chaotic for Principia as they played Blackburn, but they held the lead. In game one, Blackburn stayed with Principia until
Natalie Davenport stepped up to serve, taking the score from 15-13 to 19-13 with hard serving. After winning game one 25-19, #Davenport# continued serving hard, which pushed Principia ahead with the score 6-1 in game two. Principia became stronger through game two and three with only three hitting errors total. For the match,
Kiersten Andersen had 11 kills,
Devin Sinner had seven kills, and
Sarah Howard had six kills, putting down every single ball she was set in game two. Game two and three's scores ended with Principia winning, 25-13 and 25-19.
Head Coach
Mary Ann Sprague comments, “As players internalize the soulful defense we've been building in our competitive practices -- letting nothing drop, we will make this our standard. This combined with our new offensive dimension will help us make it to the SLIAC tournament in November.”
Principia plays Eureka next at home on Tuesday, October 19that 7:00 PM, where they will fight for the number four spot in conference.
