TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Saint Mary's College Volleyball fell to Illinois College, 3-0, and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, 3-0, on Saturday at the Rose-Hulman Invitational. The Belles fall to 7-7 while the Lady Blues improve to 7-9 and the Fightin' Engineers improve to 7-11.
Saint Mary's vs Illinois
Illinois got out to an early lead with a 25-17 win in the first set over Saint Mary's. While the Belles had no errors in the first set, the Lady Blues used five more kills to take control of the set. Sophomore Caroline Carens racked up five kills in the set to lead the Belles while sophomore Abby Reese tallied six assists.
Saint Mary's kept it close in the second set, but Illinois was just able to squeak past with a 25-20 victory. The Lady Blues had just one more kill on the same number of errors and total attacks, but it was a .303 hitting percentage that propelled them. Three Belles had tallied five or more kills through the second set while Carens led with eight.
Illinois used a dominating .444 hitting percentage in the third set to take the match victory with a 25-16 win in the third set. Five Belles recorded five or more kills in the match while Carens led the team with 11, juniors Grace Braselton and Patricia Settlemier followed with seven and six respectively while junior Delaney Martin and freshman Kalli Lewkowski recorded five each. Freshman Giuliana Graczyk led the team with 14 assists while Reese finished with 12.
Saint Mary's vs Rose-Hulman
Rose-Hulman was dominant coming out of the gate in the first set with a 25-14 victory to take the early 1-0 lead. The Engineers tallied 16 kills on a .429 hitting percentage and caused the Belles to make six errors in the set. Lewkowski racked up five of the team's eight kills in the set while Graczyk tallied five assists.
Saint Mary's powered back in the second set but fell, 25-22. It was a rough set for both teams as there were 17 total errors recorded and both teams tallied .070 and .071 hitting percentages respectively. Three Belles had four or more kills while Reese tallied eight assists in the set alone, bringing her total to 10.
Rose-Hulman kept their momentum rolling in the third set, taking the win 25-19 to secure the match victory. While both teams kept their errors in check in this set, it was a .138 hitting percentage that ended up hurting the Belles. Lewkowski led the team with nine kills while Braselton recorded six and Caren's had five. Reese brought her assist total to 18, she has had double-digit assists in 13 of 14 matches this season while recording at least 15 in nine matches.
UP NEXT FOR THE BELLES
Saint Mary's continues the road swing on Tuesday when they head north to take on Alma College in the conference opener starting at 7pm. The Belles return home on October 6 to host Beloit College for their Morgan's Message match starting at 2pm.