Kansas City
9-21,6-11Summit League
St. Thomas
4-25,2-15Summit League
Roos Complete Season Sweep of Tommies
11/17/2022 9:09:00 PM | Volleyball
Kansas City battled through the first set and rolled in the final two to defeat St. Thomas
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Kansas City completed the season sweep of St. Thomas with a 29-27, 25-20, 25-15 victory Thursday night at Schoenecker Arena. The Roos battled off three sets points in the first set and won the next two sets behind key scoring runs midway through each set.
Carly Gillen led a balanced Kansas City attack with 10 kills with no errors in 15 attempts. Georgia Mullins had nine kills at a .467 hitting efficiency, and Rachel Sturdevant and Odyssey Warren chipped in with seven kills each.
One of the main stories of the match was service aces, as the Roos had a season-high 10. Sydney Henry led off set two with two of her team-high four aces and Kennedy Schritenthal had her two aces late in set three to put the game away. Warren had three aces to go along with her team-high 34 attacks.
The Roos used momentum built from a come-from-behind set one victory to win the match. Carly Gillen had scored three straight points for the Roos to stave off three set points before a kill by Sturdevant and a hitting error by St. Thomas won set one. Kansas City had 20 kills in the set and hit .279, while St. Thomas hit .303 with just five errors.
KEY MOMENTS
- S1 / 5-3 | The Roos jumped out to a 5-3 lead as Georgia Mullins had the first two kills, Odyssey Warren had the next and Gillen chipped in with two more. Kansas City was perfect in five hitting attempts.
- S1 / 14-19 | St. Thomas scored four straight points midway through the second set behind scrappy defense and two Kansas City hitting errors.
- S2 / 7-2 | Sydney Henry had two service aces, her third and fourth of the match, as the Roos jumped out to a 7-2 lead. St. Thomas had four hitting errors in the early part of the second set.
- S2 / 17-11 | St. Thomas rallied to take a 11-10 lead, by the Roos scored the next seven points to go up 17-11 as Green, Whetstone, Mullins and Whetstone again had kills to lead the visitors.
- S2 / 25-20 | Sturdevant kills gave Kansas City points 23 and 24 for the set and the Roos won as St. Thomas had a hitting error for the final point. Gillen and Smith each had two kills for Kansas City in that key stretch.
- S3 / 7-7 | Three-straight hitting errors by the Tommies allowed the Roos to tie things up early in the third.
- S3 / 20-14 | Kansas City won six-straight points to take controll of the set, aided by a pair of aces from Warren and a pair of kills by Gillen.
S3 | @carlygillen puts it away for her ??th kill of the day, Roos creating some separation.#ROOUP | #DeclareKC pic.twitter.com/fg5NwTagmh
— Kansas City Volleyball (@KCRoosVB) November 18, 2022
- S3 / 25-15 | The Roos took the final five points of the set, capped by a Warren kill, to claim the sweep.
STATS TO NOTE
- Ten aces were a season high the Kansas City in a match. The season high had been seven aces in five different matches.
- The score was 5-5 early in set one and both teams were perfect in hitting efficiency, Kansas City 5-for-5 and St. Thomas 4-for-4.
- Midway through the second set and Roos up 13-11, 10 Kansas City players had at least one dig, led by Green with five, and six players had at lead one kill, led by Mullins and Gillen with seven each.
- The Roos trailed 8-7 in the third set before Raina Smith gave Kansas City its first kill. St. Thomas helped out with six hitting errors that resulted in Kansas City points.
- The Roos won set three with just seven kills. St. Thomas was its own worst enemy with 12 hitting errors and a .000 efficiency in the set.
COACH CHRISTI POSEY, QUOTED
"I thought we were really good from a serve-and-pass standpoint, although it took awhile for us to capitalize with our block and defense. Ten aces, led by Sydney Odyssey and Kennedy, and others who created some chaos, was critical to the win. I was proud of our toughness in the first set and how clean we were at end game. We'll never take a road win for granted!"
UP NEXT
The Roos close out the season with a contest at Western Illinois at Noon on Saturday. Kansas City will be looking for its 10th win of the season, which would extend the streak of 10-plus win seasons to five.
