SANDUSKY, Ohio - Saint Mary's College Volleyball would start the 2025 season with back to back wins at the Cedar Point Invitational, 3-0 over Oberlin College and 3-1 over Mount St Joseph University. The Belles improved to 2-0 to open the season while the win over Oberlin was the 100th career win for Belles Head Coach Denise Van De Walle at Saint Mary's.

Saint Mary's vs Oberlin

The Belles would take quick control of the match with an early 25-15 win in set one over Yeowomen. Saint Mary's would outkill Oberlin 14-10 in the set and would hit an incredible .462 in the set alone.

Set two would come down to the end of the set, but the Belles came out victorious, 25-21. This set was a different story as Saint Mary's would force an incredible 10 errors from Oberlin in the second set alone.

While Oberlin would control the third set statistically, Saint Mary's would take the third set, 25-21, to secure their first win of the 2025 season and the 100th career win at Saint Mary's for Head Coach Denise Van De Walle.

Junior Caroline Carens (Naperville, IL) would lead the Belles with 11 kills on the match while senior Delaney Martin (North Judson, IN) would record seven. Sophomore Giuliana Graczyk (Chicago, IL) would tally a match high 16 assists while junior Abby Reese (Elkhart, IN) would follow close behind with 15. Senior Karli Fegan (Orland Park, IL) would lead the Belles with 17 digs.

Saint Mary's vs Mount St. Joseph

While not having the most impressive start to the match statistically, Saint Mary's fought out a tough first set to take an early 1-0 lead with a 26-24 victory. The Belles would tally nine kills in the first set and force an impressive 10 errors by the Lions.

Mount St. Joseph would bounce right back, taking the second set, 25-20. The Belles would outkill the Lions 15-14 in the set but it was eight errors that held the Belles back.

Saint Mary's would bounce right back in the third set, taking the set 25-15, to go up 2-1 in the match. The Belles would dominate offensively in the third set, outkilling the Lions 11-10 but out hitting them .321-.086. Saint Mary's would also force seven errors in the set while only committing two.

Both teams would go back and forth in the third set but the Belles would close out the match strong with a 25-23 victory to finish their first day of the 2025 season 2-0.

Freshman Shannon Rudge (Granger, IN) would finish the match with a team high 13 kills while Carens would put up 10 of her own. Sophomore Kalli Lewkowski (Spring Lake, MI) and senior Grace Braselton (Grand Rapids, MI) would add nine and seven kills.

Graczyk would add an incredible 24 assists in the match while Reese would tally 15. Fegan would add a match high 24 digs while both Carens and Braselton would each tally four block assists.

UP NEXT FOR THE BELLES

Saint Mary's get right back into action as they start day two of the Cedar Point Invitational with an 8am match on Saturday against Hiram University before closing out the event with a matchup against Kenyon College at 12pm.