The No. 11-ranked St. Thomas volleyball team defeated University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Friday with a 3-0 win in the first round of the NCAA regional tournament at Concordia-Moorhead.
Senior setter and All-tournament team member Ashley Maher said because the match-up was an unfamiliar one for the Tommies playing their game was the key.
“Eau Claire was a team that we didn’t know much about coming in,” Maher said. “They’re one of the few teams we haven’t played at this tournament. We really just focused on our side and said if we pull together…it doesn’t matter what they’re doing.”
Coach Thanh Pham said the tone was set early in the first set after freshman middle blocker Kelly Foley came up with four commanding kills.
“I think we started off really strong,” Foley said. “We showed that we weren’t going to let it go easy, and we weren’t going to be making a lot of mistakes. We really stayed in system.”
St. Thomas took control of the match at the end of a 25-18 victory in the first set. The Tommies held a big lead for much of the set, at one point leading 23-13. Eau Claire was able to make a slight comeback, cutting the score to 23-17, but after a Tommie timeout, freshman Jill Greenfield closed out the first set with two of her 11 kills. Sophomore outside hitter Nicole Potts also finished the game with 11 kills.
Greenfield said Pham’s wisdom during the timeout was a key-factor in finishing off the set.
“Coach usually just tells us what we have to do, play level-headed and focus on the pass. I think that helped us today,” Greenfield said. “Once we pass, we know we can execute well.”
The Tommies repeated their dominant first set performance in the second set, securing a 25-17 win and bringing the overall score to 2-0. Greenfield again closed off the second set with a kill.
The third set was the closest of the match. The Blugolds controlled the pace early, but the Tommies were able to jump to a 20-18 lead after kills by Greenfiled and sophomore middle blocker Paige Brimeyer.
Greenfield attributed the third set’s intensity to the Blugold’s season being on the line.
“They were playing with passion and fire. We were expecting it, but they really came out strong,” Greenfield said.
St. Thomas went on to win the third set 25-21, and the wins gives the team 30 on the season.
Pham said a personal highlight of the victory was watching his players have fun and enjoy themselves.
The Tommies face St. Scholastica at 3:30 p.m. in Saturday’s second round. Pham believes it will take similar execution to Friday’s game to defeat the Saints.
“I think we just have to continue to worry about our side of the net, and we need to pass the ball well. St. Scholastica is a very good team as well,” Pham said. “We’ve seen them twice already this year and had some success against them. We’re hoping that’ll carry through starting tomorrow.”
Although the Tommies are 2-0 against the Saint this season, Pham said it will be important for his team to keep their confidence in check.
“We’re going to go in confident but not overconfident,” Pham said. “I think that during tournament time everyone wants to be No. 1 really bad, and I think we’ll be ready for whatever St. Scholastica brings.”
Briggs LeSavage can be reached at lesa4364@stthomas.edu