Grace Splits In VB Tourney
GEORGETOWN, Ky. – After a four-set loss to No. 11 Georgetown earlier in the day, Grace’s volleyball team bounced back to knock off St. Catharine in five sets on Friday.
The Lady Lancers split the opening day of the Georgetown Tournament. Grace continues the tournament with matches on Saturday against Asbury at 9:30 a.m. and Bryan at 2 p.m.
In Grace’s second match on Friday, the Lady Lancers (9-2) found themselves behind 2-1 in sets against St. Catharine. Grace won the first set by five before dropping the next two 25-12 and 25-22.
The Lady Lancers showed resolve in the fourth set, holding the Patriots (10-2) to a .069 attack percentage en route to a 25-19 victory.
In the tiebreaker, Grace pounded out an 11-6 advantage in kills and held on for a thrilling 15-13 victory.
Kaitlin Kerrigan’s 19 kills paced Grace’s attack on a .170 percentage. Ellie Harp passed out 58 assists to go along with seven kills on 10 attempts. Hannah Clemmons took match honors with 26 digs as the team’s libero.
Calah Kruse earned 12 kills and 13 digs, Grace Woolsey had 16 kills, 1 solo block and 3 block assists, and Tori Bontrager added 12 kills on a .375 percentage.
Grace played the host school Georgetown in the first match of the day. The NAIA 11th-ranked Tigers held a 21-18 lead late in the opening set, but a well-placed timeout from head coach Andria Harshman swung momentum back to the visitors. Grace ended the game on a 7-1 run to win 25-22, ending the set on an ace from Calah Kruse and a kill from Kaitlin Kerrigan.
Georgetown struck back in the second set, taking a commanding 25-16 win. The Tigers (3-3) looked strong to start the third set with a six-point lead at the midway mark. Grace rallied with an 11-4 charge to pull ahead 21-20, but Georgetown responded by taking five of the next seven points to win by two.
Grace did not recover in the fourth set, falling 25-11 to the 11th-ranked hosts.
Kruse tallied a double-double with a match-high 13 kills and 13 digs. Hannah Clemmons led all players with 21 digs, Grace Woolsey had 7 kills, 2 solo blocks and 1 block assist, and Kerrigan finished with 10 kills.