SPS Wins First Match of the Season

SPS Volleyball travelled down to Dana Hall to play a consistently tough Class A rival. SPS got off to a slow start, quickly falling behind 02-08 but rallied behind the serving of Georgia Cooper ’24 to tie the score at 09-09. Three quick blocks by Ellie Pingree ’24 and Bea Brown ’26 put SPS up 14-11. The two teams exchanged points put SPS slowly pulled ahead and took a commanding lead behind the serving of Lily Fitzpatrick ’25. SPS closed out the first set 25-17. The second set was tight throughout the first half, with each side siding out and preventing any scoring runs. St. Paul’s opened up the second set on a serving run by Kennedy Hinojosa ’24 to take a 15-10 lead. SPS continued to maintain the lead late into the set until Dana Hall rallied back to close the gap to 19-17. But SPS closed out the second set with two service aces from Manon Lesort ’24 to win 25-19. Dana Hall and St. Paul’s swapped points in the third set with neither team establishing a lead until a Dana Hall rally that put them ahead 08-12. Dana Hall opened up the lead 11-17 with some blocking and service aces. St. Paul’s rallied back to tie the set 21-21 behind the serving of Ingrid Cassidy ’25. But Dana Hall kept the pressure on and closed out the set 21-25. Energized by the closing points in the previous set, Dana Hall came out strong and established a quick 01-07 lead. Dana Hall maintained the lead halfway through the set 07-15 as the two teams sided out. With the set on the line and down 12-21, St. Paul’s dug deep and pushed for every point. A kill from Lily Fitzgerald and a block from Ingrid Cassidy closed the gap 15-21 and shifted the moment back to SPS. Back-to-back kills by Ingrid closed the gap 20-21 and continued service pressure from Lily Fitzgerald gave SPS a late 22-21 lead. A quick sideout on both sides put Bea Brown on the serving line 23-22 and the match on the line. Despite the fact that Bea had never served in a volleyball match in her career, she stepped back and stepped up with two perfect serves to put us at match point 24-23. Manon Lesort closed out the match at the net with a kill to win 25-23 in a well-fought battle.