LORETTO, Pa. (Oct. 18, 2008) – Senior Keshia Gibbs (Dumfries, VA/Forest Park) (Dumfries, Va. / Forest Park) had 16 kills and just two errors on 25 swings for a .560 hitting percentage, but the Saint Francis women's volleyball team couldn't hold on to a 2-1 advantage in a heartbreaking 3-2 Northeast Conference-opening loss versus Robert Morris on Saturday night.
Junior Shirley Miller (Fairless Hills, PA/Pennsbury) (Fairless Hills, Pa. / Pennsbury) also had 16 kills to go with 12 digs and an ace, senior Kristin Buter (Bowie, MD/Bowie) (Bowie, Md. / Bowie) added 14 kills, an ace and 16 digs, and junior Rikki Myers (Noblesville, IN/Westfield) (Noblesville, Ind. / Westfield) dished out 42 assists.
Alyssa Bennett had a team-high 14 kills to go with 50 assists, an ace and three blocks for the Colonials.
The Red Flash dropped to 6-16 overall, and 0-1 in the NEC. They will try to bounce back when they travel to St. Francis-NY and Wagner next Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
Saint Francis and Robert Morris battled back and forth for the first half of the first set until the Colonials took advantage of a couple mistakes to jump out to a 12-8 lead. After SFU led 8-7, Alyssa Bennett tied it with a kill, followed by a pair of Red Flash attack errors and a ball handling error that eventually was followed by an Emily Wolthuis kill to make it 12-8. SFU battled back to within 16-15, but a service rotation mistake cost them a kill to put the Colonials up 17-15. The Red Flash never recovered and dropped the first set by a 25-20 tally. RMU held a .324 to .200 hitting percentage advantage in the set.
The second set featured 16 ties and seven leads changes and neither team led by more than three points. SFU held leads of 6-4 and 7-5, and then trailed 8-10, but that was the largest lead by either team until Robert Morris reeled off thee straight points to take a 20-17 lead. The Red Flash scored four of the next five points to tie it at 21-21, but the Colonials scored the next two serves to go up 23-21 and put SFU on its heels. However, Saint Francis won three straight serves, capped by a Miller service ace, to serve up the first set point. RMU rallied to win that point, but Buter had back-to-back kills to put the game away for a 26-24 Red Flash win going into intermission. Robert Morris hit .405 in the match, while SFU tallied a .364 hitting percentage. The Red Flash had just three hitting errors on 33 swings in the set.
Set three was another back-and-forth affair in which Saint Francis was able to hold RMU's attack to an .027 hitting percentage. The set had 10 tie scores and five lead changes. The Colonials jumped out to a 7-3 lead, but SFU wouldn't back down and scored the next four serves to tie it back up at 7-7. The game also saw ties at 9-9, 10-10, 12-12, 13-13, 14-14, and 16-16 before Robert Morris won three straight points to go up 19-16. Saint Francis again chipped away and tied it up at 22-22 before an attack error and a Buter kill gave the Red Flash the game's first chance at set point. The Red Flash came up short on their first chance, but Miller gave SFU a 2-1 match lead with a kill to clinch the win at 25-23. Saint Francis hit .220 in the set, and got five kills from Miller.
The fourth set was another close battle until the Colonials turned a 16-15 edge into a commanding 22-15 lead. Robert Morris hit .353 compared to Saint Francis' .111 in the set, and came away with the 25-18 win to tie the match up at 2-2.
Robert Morris broke open a 4-4 tie in the decisive fifth set by winning three straight points on a pair of Red Flash attack errors and a Hannah Veith kill. Saint Francis never got closer than two points.
