Box Score St. Louis, MO. -- The Panthers were in the driver's seat the whole match tonight. The Panthers hit .244 as a squad, with Fontbonne posting .132. Principia also won the defensive side of the ball with 70 (to 62) digs and 5 (to 3) blocks.
Fontbonne's big gun was hitting from the back row and Principia's backcourt dug her consistently. She powered balls down from the front row, but Principia had a nice blocking presence combined with the backcourt to hold her to 11 kills on the night.
Principia's offense and defense were well rounded, making this a perfect "team" victory. Setter
Devon Marunde was effective with 35 assists, and put down four of her own kills (.400).
Sophia Hathaway,
Emily Tippetts, and
Nikki Matters were all go-to hitters tonight and accounted for all but five of the team's kills. The Panthers' defenders were all in the mix, showing no weakness in any area of the court. Principia's block was solid tonight with 8 block assists as well as one solo block.
It was a weird night - hard to get any real momentum going, but the Panthers just kept doing their thing and came out with a straight set win, AND 11 Panthers got court time, AND they earned the "W" to take them to 5-4 on the season. That'll do!
Principia travels to Illinois College for a tournament this weekend.
