ADRIAN, Mich. -- The Siena Heights women's volleyball team fought back a late rally by Concordia (Mich.) in a five-set victory on Friday night inside the SHU Fieldhouse. The Saints (17-6, 12-5 WHAC) improve to 12-5 in league play with just three more matches left of the 2021 regular season. SHU has already earned a berth into the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) tournament and is now just battling for position. The Saints currently sit fourth in the standings and host a first-round tournament match if the field remains presently.
Aline Marinelo led the Saint attack with 16 kills (.324). Marinelo also registered a team-high six blocks in the game with one solo and five assists. Olivia Norman also had six blocks in the match while contributing 14 kills (.269). Autumn Anderson hit for .208, and 12 kills to help SHU in the winning effort. Aubrey Bates finished with her 12th double-double of the year with 47 assists and 16 digs. Payton Osborne completed her night with 21 digs, five service aces, and three assists. Kadie Carsten had 16 digs and eight kills, while Alli Conly added 13 digs.
The Saints came out blazing in the first frame as they built a 9-2 lead early. The Cardinals would cut it to five with a kill to make the score 18-13, but Siena never surrendered the lead on the way to a 25-16 win to take the 1-0 lead.
Concordia (Mich.) took the early advantage in the second set with a slight, 6-4 edge. An 8-0 run by SHU flipped the advantage, and the Saints held a 12-6 lead. The Cardinals trimmed it down to two points, 22-20, with a service ace. However, the navy and yellow returned the favor with a service ace from Payton Osborne that ended the game with a 25-21 score, and the home team was on top 2-0.
Again, CUAA built a lead, 6-2, before the Saint rallied with a big run to flip the score to 9-7. The Cardinals battled to tie things up at nine before the teams began trading points up to a deadlock at 22. An attack error by Alli Conly preceded two more points for the Cardinals in a 25-22 loss in the third, and the score was 2-1 as the match headed into the fourth.
Another competitive set in the fourth stanza saw CUAA build a 4-1 lead at the beginning. However, Siena Heights roared back to knot things up at six as the teams traded points and the lead as neither could pull far away from the other. Trailing 18-16, the Saints stopped play with a timeout, but CUAA pulled ahead to a 22-18 advantage. A kill gave the Cardinals the set point before another kill ended the fourth with a 25-23 decision for the visitors, and the game headed into a decisive fifth set.
SHU was all over Concordia (Mich.) to start with a 9-2 lead. However, the Cardinals were determined to go down swinging as they battled back to cut the lead to 13-10 late in the final set. A block by Bates and Norman earned set and match point for SHU. Marinelo ended things three plays later with a kill to give set five to Siena Heights, 15-12.
Up Next
The Saints travel to Lawrence Tech next Wednesday, November 3, for the first of three final matches of the regular season. The opening serve is scheduled at 7:00 p.m. inside the Don Ridler Field House in Southfield, Michigan.
