09/22/07

St. Scholastica put up a fight in the opening match of day two at the Millikin (Univ.) Classic in Decatur, Ill., Saturday morning, but the Violets from New York University (9-7) struck the final blow in each of the final two games to take a hard fought 3-1 win over the Saints (5-9).

The Saints grabbed the lead with a 30-27 win in game one but the Violets evened things up with a 30-23 game two victory.

Over the final two games of the match, St. Scholastica and NYU would battle nearly point by point but it was the Violets who would take both games by identical 33-31 scores for the match win.

The one that got away was the third game of the match as the Saints finished with a .000 attack percentage after having as many attacking errors, 12, as successful kills. In the other three games they had a combined total of 50 kills and only 15 attacking errors.

Junior outside hitter Shawna Varichak had a career day on offense with a match- and career-high 26 kills. She also added 17 digs on defense, her second highest career total, behind only 18 digs in a five-game home victory over Viterbo earlier this season.

Erin Niles played strong at the net for the Saints defense registering three solo blocks and a pair of block assists for a match high 4.0 total blocks. Megan Baartman added 2.0 blocks in the loss.

Defensive specialist Diana Moody also had a good day defensively in the back row picking up a match-high 33 digs. Cassie Roden had 22 more for the Saints.