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Volleyball downed 3-1
The St. Kate's volleyball team boarded the bus to Winona for the last long road trip of the season, unfortunately the trip home would not include enjoying an MIAC victory. St. Kate's lost to St. Mary's 3-1 (21-25, 18-25, 25-22, 23-25). The game that featured plenty of blocking and some long rallies, but for the Wildcats it also included a few untimely errors.
Neither the Wildcats nor the Cardinals were able to gain the upper hand in the first set. There were eight ties in set one. Finally, with St. Mary's (SMU) leading 19-18 the Cardinals scored three straight points to open a 22-18 lead. From there the teams exchanged points and SMU prevailed 25-21.
Set two was all Cardinals as they quickly opened up a 4-1 lead and never looked back. SMU hit .321 in the second set and built their lead to 18-9 enroute to their 25-18 win.
Trailing 0-2 the Wildcats showed their tenacity and played their best volleyball of the night. Set three was similar to set one with numerous ties and lead changes, this time the Wildcats took charge late in the set and went on to win 25-22.
Set four was close the entire way, as St. Kate's was looking to force a fifth set. Despite a great effort the Wildcats were unable to find a way to get the win. Late in the set the Wildcats trailed 22-21 and 24-23, but in both cases they could not pull even with the hosts. Ultimately SMU prevailed 25-23.
The highlights for the Wildcats included Rebecca Zenefski having another strong game. She lead all players with 16 kills and hit .256 on the evening. Whitney Sparby added 35 set assists to her career total, and Meghan Ahlbrecht moved to within 18 kills of the Wildcats single season record.
On the downside, the Wildcats lost their three sets by a combined 13 points and will likely look at their nine service errors as a place where they could have altered the outcome of the game.
St. Kate's will look to shake their three game losing streak on Friday when they make the short trip to Hamline University to play the Pipers.
Complete Box Score
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