SPS Loses to Thayer

St. Paul’s travelled down to Thayer on Wednesday and were handed their first loss of the season. St. Paul’s started the match strong and jumped out to a quick lead against Thayer, but did not waiver and rapidly tied to score at 10-10. Thayer got into a strong serving rally and jumped up to a 10-16 lead. St. Paul’s worked their way back to a 15-18 deficit and then to a 20-22 deficit but the gap proved too big to close in the waining points, and Thayer closed out the set 21-25. Undeterred by the loss, St. Paul’s rebounded in the second set, jumping out to a 7-1 lead, but Thayer fought back again to close the gap 11-10. Both teams continued to side out until Manon Lesort ’24 stepped to the service line and hit two aces in a four-point run that put St. Paul’s ahead 19-15. Energized by the lead, Isa Martinez ’24 helped close the set with her serving and defense to win 25-19 and tie the match 1-1. St. Paul’s came out strong again in the third set, at one point building up a 9-4 lead before Thayer climbed back and worked the score to 20-17. They earned their own four-point run to take a 20-21 lead, which St. Paul’s tied but Thayer kept on the pressure. Even though St. Paul’s held them at set point 22-24, Thayer sided out on an error to win the third set 23-25. Thayer came out stronger in the fourth set and prevented any large runs by St. Paul’s, who struggled with consistency at critical moments. Thayer soon built up a 03-08 lead and ten rotations later had sided out to maintain 13-20 lead. St. Paul’s closed the gap behind the serving and defense of Georgia Cooper ’24 but her effort was not enough to overcome the deficit and St. Paul’s lost the set 19-25. Offensive highlights included strong net play by Bea Brown ’06 and strong hitting by Ingrid Cassidy ’05.