Despite 19 kills from outside hitter Jill Greenfield, the St. Thomas volleyball team could not break a stout Coe College defense, losing 3-1 to the Kohawks in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

After winning the first set, the Tommies (24-7) dropped the next three, watching both their playoff run and their season come to a close.

“It’s as disappointing as you can imagine,” coach Thanh Pham said. “We have a senior-laden group, and it’s absolutely devastating for us to lose. Not because we expected to win, but because it’s hard for us to say goodbye to such great seniors and such a great team.”

The Tommies took the first set in stylish fashion, winning 25-21. Defensive specialist Whitney Abrahamson showed off her range, diving to the floor to save a number of balls, while Greenfield and fellow hitter Taylor Lewis smashed kill after kill through the Coe defense.

“They were super good at defense, so anything we could do to get them off balance and change their play was what we tried to do,” Greenfield said. “We tried to go fast, we tried to get outside of our system, and I think it worked sometimes.”

After that set however, the Kohawks (29-8) spread their wings, putting on a defensive performance that rattled the Tommie offense.

Coe, led by its defensive specialist Alissa Wittenburg’s game-high 33 digs, won the second set by a resounding 25-16 margin, setting the tone for the rest of the match.

“We were not on point,” Pham said of his team’s performance. “That made it a little bit easier on them, but we’ll never know if we played our best. They beat us tonight, and that’s all that really matters.”

Coe would go on to win both of the next two sets 25-22.

After getting down 17-10 early in the third set, St. Thomas, propelled by a streak of kills from middle blocker Kelly Foley, mounted a furious comeback getting the score to 22-21.

On the verge of re-taking control of the match, the Kohawk defense showed its skill once more, sealing the third set and eventually the fourth and final set as well.

“We always focus on playing the way we know how to play and stopping the ball as we know how to stop it and staying balanced and focused the whole time,” Abrahamson said. “We did all those things, but we just happened to lose.”

With the loss, St. Thomas watched its season come to a close, something that weighs especially hard on its numerous seniors.

“It is definitely disappointing to lose at home,” Greenfield said. “But like our coaches said, there are so many more things to take away from this season other than just tonight, so that’s what we are going to focus on.”

The six seniors and the rest of the team have formed an amazing bond that Abrahamson said will be almost impossible to leave behind.

“I can’t even really put it into words,” Abrahamson said. “I’ve played with these girls for four years, and my best friends and my coaches are my family, and I really don’t know what I’m going to do without them.”

The St. Thomas seniors include Greenfield, Abrahamson, Foley and outside hitters Sara Atkinson, Kelly Brandenburg and Sydney Westfield.

St. Thomas was one of three MIAC teams to lose Thursday, as Augsburg lost to Cornell (Iowa) 3-1, and St. Ben’s lost to Wisconsin-Steven’s Point 3-0, eliminating all MIAC teams from the NCAA tournament.

Scott Sikich can be reached at siki3549@stthomas.edu.