WINTER PARK, Fla. — The St. Mary's University Volleyball team was one of three teams to finish 3-1 at the Rollins Invitational, ending the weekend on a high note with a pair of Saturday wins.
The Rattlers swept Concord in the opener and then won a five-set thriller in the final match of the tournament over the host Tars.
St. Mary's remains on the road for the second week, heading south to Kingsville for the Javelina Invitational, where they will face Minnesota State Moorhead, Findlay, Montana State-Billings and the Javelinas.
St. Mary's 3, Concord 0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-13)
Laurene Robinson (Bedford, Texas) kept the strong start to her final season going, blasting 17 kills on 29 swings with only one error for a .552 hitting percentage, though she finished second on the team in hitting percentage as freshman
Madyson Carr (Houston) did not have a hitting error in the match, posting eight kills on 10 swings (.800).
Junior
Taylor Alston (San Antonio) joined Robinson in double figures with 12 kills, while fellow junior
Kaylee Cavazos (San Antonio) led the match with 15 digs. Senior
Addison Carrillo (San Antonio) paced the team with two aces.
The Rattlers flipped the script from Friday morning, making only three unforced hitting errors in the entire match, as the team hit .417 (52-7-108). It is the fifth-highest hitting percentage in a three-set match in school history and the third-best in the 25-point rally era.
The match saw 10 ties and five lead changes in the first set, but the Rattlers never trailed in the final two sets. The teams were tied at 1-1 in the third set before StMU used a four-point run to open up a 5-1 lead. In the final set, Robinson posted seven kills on seven attacks as the team made zero unforced hitting errors in the lopsided victory.
St. Mary's 3, Rollins 2 (15-25, 25-19, 25-22, 23-25, 15-11)
St. Mary's used a well-balanced attack in the nightcap to knock off the tournament hosts. Alston led the team with 13 kills, while Robinson was one behind her with 12. Sophomore
Tara Creekmore (Canton, Mich.), who started the final four sets, added six and seniors
Olivia Rubio (San Antonio) and setter
Haleigh Wilk (Salado, Texas) each chipped in five.
Cavazos led the defense with 12 digs and added a match-high four service aces, while Alston had 11 digs in posting the first double-double of her career. Carr continued to be a force at the net, blocking five shots, with two being solo stuffs. Wilk and Robinson narrowly missed double-doubles of their own as they each recorded nine digs, and Wilk notched a match-high 31 assists.
The Rattlers got off to a slow start, hitting only .042 in the opening set, but bounced back to make zero hitting errors in the second set and hit .483 to knot the match at one set each. Wilk did a great job of spreading the offense as four of her five hitters had between four and 10 attempts.
The third and fourth sets were both back-and-forth affairs as the teams saw 15 ties and six lead changes in those two sets alone, splitting the games to force a fifth and deciding set. Alston slammed down a kill and stepped back to the service line for her third ace of the night to tie the score at 10-10. The Rattlers scored five of the final six points, including an ace serve by Cavazos on match point for the victory.
