GREENVILLE, Pa. (Nov. 11) -- The Thiel College Women's Volleyball team, behind a season-most 16 service aces, defeated Franciscan University 3-1 Tuesday evening in front of a sold out crowd from Maenpa Court at Beeghly Gymnasium in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Championship Tournament Quarterfinals.
The Tomcats (17-8) will host Grove City College Thursday evening in the Conference Semifinals at 7 p.m. Thiel will be appearing in the semifinals for the first time since 2022. The Barons conclude there season at 12-13.
After dropping set 3, Thiel opened set four on a 15-0 run with
Sarah Wilson (Rural Valley, Pa./West Shamokin) at the service line. Wilson had five aces in the run, including a stretch of three straight. Back-to-back
Arin DeLattre (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield) kills gave Thiel 14 match points at 24-10. A
Daisy Jenness (Pendleton, Ore./Pendleton) kill sealed the set and booked Thiel's ticket to the semifinals.
Wilson recorded a career-best eight aces, which is tied for third most in a match in program history. She added a career-high 19 digs in the victory.
Jenness recorded a match-leading 26 kills on .257 from the outside. Her 26 kills are tied for eighth most in Thiel history. She added five digs and a pair of blocks.
DeLattre continued her dominant stretch as she recorded 17 kills on .394 from the middle to go with seven digs, a match-high-tying four blocks (1 BS, 3 BA) and four aces.
Thiel came out firing in set one and led 11-5 on a
Lyndzee Amory (Edinboro, Pa./Saegertown) kill. Franciscan pulled ahead 15-14 before a 6-0 Thiel run with Wilson serving made it 20-15. A
Caitlin Stephens (West Middlesex, Pa./West Middlesex) / Amory combo block gave Thiel the set and a 1-0 lead.
Amory finished with four kills and three blocks while Stephens had a trio of kills and a pair of blocks.
The Barons got within 3 at 12-9 in set three before another Wilson spurt from behind the line grew the lead to 18-9. A pair of Stephens kills along with one from DeLattre, all three coming off assists from
Carlie Reynolds (Grove City, Pa./Grove City Area), gave Thiel the set and a 2-0 advantage.
Reynolds dished out a match-best 48 assists and dug 13 balls for her 14th double-double of the season. She added an ace in the triumph.
Franciscan clung to a 22-17 lead in set three before back-to-back Thiel points, the later of which came on a
Danielle Aulet (Lawrence, Kan./Mineral Ridge) ace, made it 22-19. The Tomcats logged 3-of-4 to get within 1 at 24-23 before the visitors recorded the final point following a more-than-lengthy rally to get on the board.
Aulet, who became Thiel's all-time digs record holder last Saturday at Hiram, dug a team-best 21 balls while serving a pair of aces.
Thiel held the edge on defense with 80 digs to Franciscan's 70 as
Macie Williams (Cochranton, Pa./Cochranton) dug nine balls. The Blue and Gold had six blocks (1 BS, 10 BA) for the match.
The Tomcats will host Grove City Thursday in the PAC Championship Tournament Semifinals at 7 p.m. The two sides split a pair of regular season meetings, with each team winning on the others home court.
