Outside hitter Jill Greenfield’s 14 kills weren’t enough as the St. Thomas volleyball team fell to Emory University (Ga.) 3-2, Friday night in Springfield, Ohio.
D3Volleyball’s No. 1-ranked St. Thomas fell behind 2-0 to start, but managed to come back and push the match to five sets. Middle blocker Paige Brimeyer had six kills and three digs.
“We knew (Emory) would be really tough,” Brimeyer said. “Overall it was a good learning experience.”
This loss ended a 35-game winning streak for the defending national champion Tommies, which started after St. Thomas fell to Emory in the second weekend of the 2012 season.
The Tommies won the third set 25-20, on a game-point service error by an Eagle player.
The Tommies dominated the fourth set 25-16. Brimeyer doubled up with middle blocker Kelly Foley for a block that sealed the set and forced a fifth. Greenfield added 10 digs and a block.
“Even though we started out slow, we really found a point during the match where we were playing good team defense and working cohesively,” Greenfield said. “We found a way to be one team rather than six individuals, which helped lift our energy.”
Emory led throughout the entire fifth set and won 15-11. Although it was a tough match for the Tommies, Greenfiled said the team learned from its mistakes and knows what to improve on as it moves forward.
“We definitely have to start out stronger tomorrow,” Greenfield said. “But like our coach says, it’s not how you start but how you finish, so hopefully tomorrow we can fix the things we learned from tonight.”
St. Thomas tallied 49 kills and 80 digs during Friday’s match. Foley finished with 12 kills and two digs while outside hitter Nicole Potts added six kills and 12 digs. Opposite hitter Sara Atkinson chipped in seven kills and three digs.
“I think we definitely have to recognize it’s a new day and that we really are just at the beginning of our season with so much more to learn,” Greenfield said. “We wish we could’ve came out with a win and learned the same lessons, but it’s over now and every game ahead of us is really just a stepping stone to where we want to be in November.”
St. Thomas is back in action tomorrow with matches against Johns Hopkins University (Md.) and No. 3-ranked Wittenberg University (Ohio).
Kyle Jonas can be reached at jona7984@stthomas.edu.