09/22/06

The Saints' seven match win streak was put to rest by the University of Dubuque in the opening match of the Clarke College Invitational on Friday afternoon in Dubuque, Iowa.

The win streak began at the Saint Mary's Sugarloaf Classic the second weekend of September, and within the streak the Saints battled to wins in five-game matches three times.

Against Dubuque, though, the Saints started off slowly with a 30-17 loss in game one.

In game two, the Saints inched closer -- despite 10 attacking errors -- but still fell short, 30-26.

Finally, in game three the Saints looked like the team with the win streak as they cut down on attack errors and increased their number of kills to 15. However, they fell just short of pushing the match to a fourth game, losing the final game 30-28.

Erin Niles had five kills in the third game after registering only one each in the first two games. For the match, no Saint reached double-figures in kills but Amy Thompson finished with nine and Shawna Varichak had eight.

Uncharacteristically, the Saints had 14 service reception errors in the match after averaging less than 10 through their first 13 matches.

The Saints will try to rebound with their next match at the Invitational, an afternoon contest against the host school, Clarke College.