NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Saint Mary's College Volleyball fell in a down to the wire match with Albion College on Wednesday night, 3-2. The Belles move to 10-8 (1-1 MIAA) on the year while the Britons go to 14-2 (2-0 MIAA).
The first set was a back-and-forth battle for both teams as they traded points early. Albion would get out to a short four-point lead before Saint Mary's used an aggressive 8-1 to get ahead at the media timeout. The Britons bounced back with multiple two to three point runs as they took the lead and closed out the set with a 25-21 win to take a 1-0 in the match. Senior
Caroline Carens (Naperville, IL) dominated offensively early as she put up an impressive seven kills in the first set alone. Junior
Giuliana Graczyk (Chicago, IL) would add eight assists in the set to lead the match.
The back-and-forth battle continued early in the second set before Saint Mary's saw themselves ahead by a couple. Albion then went on a crushing 11-1 run through the middle of the set and shut the Belles down the remainder to take the set, 25-15, and a quick 2-0 lead. Carens added five more kills to jump to 12 while freshman
Bridget O'Connell (Tinley Park, IL) added four in the set. Graczyk added seven more assists to move up to 15 on the night.
The Belles got out to a strong lead early in the third set but not before the Britons would tie the set at 11. Saint Mary's then used a 10-4 stretch to separate themselves from Albion before closing out the set with a 25-18 win and bouncing back to take the match to 2-1. Carens dominated on the offensive end again as she added an outstanding eight kills in the set alone, tying her career high in just three sets with 20. Graczyk would jump to 23 assists while senior
Abby Reese (Elkhart, IN) joined her in double figures with 14.
While the two teams stayed close early in the fourth set, the Belles took control and never looked back. After the match was knotted up at five a piece, they would go on to double up Albion the rest of the way, 20-10, using an impressive five separate runs of three points to take the set and send the match to a fifth set tiebreaker. Carens set a new career high for kills in a match with three in the set to bring her to 23. Sophomore
Shannon Rudge (Granger, IN) also added three in the set to join O'Connell at nine each. Graczyk added seven more assists to move up to 30 assists.
Saint Mary's took the first two points quickly in the fifth set but not before Albion would take the air out of the room with a 6-0 run to get out to a comfortable lead. While the Belles tried to bounce back into the match, the Britons would hold on and survive the upset with a 15-7 win to take the match 3-2.
Carens was the star of the night for the Belles offensively as she finished with a career high 26 kills and added a career high of 32 points. Her 26 kills were the most for a Belle since 2022. She tallied her 17th match with double digit kills and her 10th with at least 15 kills. Carens also added an impressive .489 hitting percentage, her 10th time hitting above .400 on the season. Rudge and O'Connell both finished with nine kills on the night.
Graczyk led the team with an impressive 33 assists while Reese added 18. Graczyk has added double digit assists in every game and this is her tenth match with at least 10 and back-to-back matches with 30 or more.
Defensively, sophomore
Molly Boyle (Palos Heights, IL) led the team with 18 digs while Reese added 15 and Graczyk tallied 10. Boyle has tallied double digit digs in 17 matches in her first season with the Belles. Carens led the team with four block assists on the night while Reese added two. Carens, O'Connell, and Reese all added a solo block as well.
UP NEXT FOR THE BELLES
Saint Mary's heads on the road for their final non-conference matchups on Saturday as they travel to Concordia University Chicago to take on Luther College and the hosting Cougars. The Belles return home on October 13 as they host 14th ranked Calvin University for their annual Pink Game starting at 7pm.
