[Volleyball] SAU Volleyball Ousts Tenn. Wesleyan

- Troy Baranik, Sports Information

LAURINBURG, NC - The St. Andrews University women's volleyball team ran past conference foe Tennessee Wesleyan in three sets (25-15, 25-23, 25-16) at home Saturday morning to complete a weekend sweep of their North Division rivals.

SAU 3, TWU 0

SAU got off to a great start as they got out to an 8-1 lead in the first set. TW could get no closer than four points the rest of the game as SAU won it 25-15.

A very competitive second set had each team take slim leads but could never pull away until the Knights led 17-11. However, TW came back strong to go on a 12-5 run to lead 23-22 forcing SAU into a timeout. But the Knights rallied themselves and took the last three points of the set to take it 25-23.

SAU then ran out to a huge 10-0 lead and eventually 15-2 advantage in game three before holding off the Lady Bulldogs to win 25-16.

Senior outside hitter Tessa Smith (SR/Jacksonville, FL) led the Lady Knights with 13 kills and 16 digs for her 6th double-double of the season while hitting .294, a season-high. She also added four assists, two aces and a block.

Senior MB Lindsey Wagner (SR/Austin, TX) then added 5 kills, and a block while junior middle Destiney O'Kane (JR/El Paso, TX) added 3 kills and 3 blocks while hitting .375. Senior middle blocker Kiah Cheatham (SR/Kalamazoo, MI) also contributed three kills and three blocks with an ace while hitting .143.

Senior RS Andrea Navarro (SR/Salinas, CA) also recorded seven kills while hitting .227 to rank second on the team while also leading with 4 blocks. Freshman libero Karina Lozada (FR/Bayamon, Puerto Rico) then added another terrific game with 16 digs, an ace, an assist and a kill.

Sophomore setter Shalia Powell (SO/Dayton, NV) led the team in assists with 15 along with a team-best four aces and 7 digs while sophomore setter Brooke Thomas (SO/Brunswick, GA) contributed 9 assists with 5 digs.

SAU improves to 6-4 and 3-1 in the AAC while TWU falls to 4-9 and 0-3 AAC.

St. Andrews will next go on the road to face Truett-McConnell University (Ga.) in North Georgia on Tuesday at 6:30 PM.