GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The Siena Heights women's volleyball team fell 3-1 at Aquinas on Saturday afternoon. The Saints (14-6, 9-5 WHAC) have dropped two straight matches on the road to fall to 9-5 in Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) play. They are 3.5 games back from first place in the league standings and currently sit in fourth place.
Janel Ruhlman finished with 14 kills (.239) to lead the Siena Heights offense for the afternoon. Aline Marinelo registered nine kills (.294) and two blocks. Aubrey Bates finished with 39 assists and 10 digs for her fourth consecutive double-double. Payton Osborne led defensively with 25 digs. Alli Conly contributed with 11 digs in the losing effort.
The Saints jumped out to an 8-3 lead early in the first set. The AQ Saints would take a 16-15 lead after a 5-0 run and would build it to a 19-16 advantage with a run of three straight points. SHU fired back with a 3-0 run later to regain the advantage, 23-22, but Aquinas knotted things up at 23 with a kill. Ruhlman gave the Saints the set point with a kill but a 3-0 run by the Saints in maroon put Siena Heights back 1-0 after a 26-24 defeat in the first.
Aquinas used a run of 5-0 to take a 12-6 lead in the second. SHU battled back to cut the deficit to three points (18-15) but couldn't catch the home team in a 25-16 decision to face a 2-0 hole going into the third set.
A 7-0 run by the visiting Saints saw SHU lead 7-1 early in the third and they never looked back on the way to a 25-16 win to cut the Aquinas lead in half, 2-1.
The navy and yellow found themselves in another hole (17-11) late in the fourth set and could recover as the AQ Saints pulled away from a 25-17 victory to end the match 3-1.
Up Next
The Saints return home for a makeup game against Rochester on Monday, October 25. The match is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
