Outside hitter Jill Greenfield and opposite hitter Sara Atkinson each contributed 12 kills to the St. Thomas volleyball team’s 3-0 victory over Hamline University Saturday at Schoenecker Arena.
Libero McKenna Reagan led the Tommie (22-2 overall, 7-1 MIAC) defense with 25 digs, while Greenfield pitched in 16 of her own.
Atkinson said the win was a good way to come back from last week’s first conference loss of the 2013 season.
“I think we really need to recover from last Wednesday when we lost to Concordia,” Atkinson said. “It’s a good way to boost our confidence and make us ready for whatever’s next.”
St. Thomas started out strong in the first set, winning the first five points of the match. Kills from middle blocker Kelly Foley and Greenfield combined for two of those points while attacking errors from Hamline (15-11 overall, 4-4 MIAC) players added three more.
Reagan said energized starts are something the team has been working on.
“Hamline’s a good team,” Reagan said. “We knew we had to come out strong to come out on top.”
Hamline called a timeout when it was down by six, but the team’s continued struggle to return kills kept St. Thomas ahead.
Atkinson and Reagan came off the bench with key kills and digs for the Tommies to maintain the lead.
Trailing 20-13, Hamline regrouped with a second time out, which proved helpful as the team was able to come within four points (22-18) of St. Thomas. However, the Tommies held their lead the entire first set with a 25-20 finish.
The second set brought a more competitive match with five lead changes and neither team holding an advantage of more than four points.
Hamline began pulling away with a 10-7 lead, which it maintained until Atkinson came through with two kills and a block to put St. Thomas back on track.
St. Thomas was able to hold a lead for the last half of the second set for a 25-22 win.
The teams continued back and forth scoring throughout the third set. The Pipers had a lead in the beginning of the third set, but Atkinson’s two consecutive kills tied the set at 7-7.
The Schoenecker Arena lights going out mid-point in the third set didn’t distract the Tommies from stealing the lead and finishing the match in a three-set sweep.
St. Thomas finished the third and final set with a block from Foley for a 25-18 win.
Coach Thanh Pham said conference wins are important for earning a good seed in the MIAC tournament.
“Ideally we hope to get the first (seed), but we put ourselves in a situation where we need some help from some other teams,” Pham said. “So the only thing we can do is try to win out and let the chips fall where they may.”
Molly Sigler can be reached at sigl1215@stthomas.edu.