Oct. 2, 2004

Box Score

Queens, NY - The St. John's women's volleyball won a pair of matches on Saturday, beating host Maryland-Eastern Shore and Delaware State, and finished as the runner-up at the Hawk Challenge Tournament this weekend in Princess Anne, MD.

The Red Storm won three of four matches, finishing second to Long Island University, who they lost to in five games on Friday night.

In Saturday's action, St. John's lost the first game to Maryland-Eastern Shore, 30-28, but swept the next three - by scores of 30-28, 30-22 and 30-16 - and cruised to the 3-1 win with four players reaching double figures in kill. Leading the way was junior Jackie Ahlers, who had 20 kills. Also reaching double figures was Yana Ruban (13 kills), Alicia Carmignani (12 kills) and LaToya Blount (10 kills). Lisa Tedder had a match-high 52 assists and Nicole Colaluca had a match-high 19 digs.

"We had a good match in the morning," Head Coach Joanne Persico-Smith said. "I thought we played really well last night (in the five-game loss to LIU), but we might have gotten a bit tired. The girl's really came out and got going today."

In the afternoon match, the Red Storm posted a three-game sweep of Delaware State, winning by scores of 30-7, 30-21 and 30-15. Ruban had a match-high 15 kills and Tedder topped both teams with 47 assists.

Ahlers and Colalucca were both named to the All-Tournament team.

St. John's, winners of eight of its last nine matches, improved to 13-5 with the Saturday sweep, the final tune-up before BIG EAST Conference action starts service next weekend.

"I think we've really grown up a lot since September 1,"Smith said. "The chemistry is good and we've some different types of teams and had some success. I feel good about this team heading into conference play."

St. John's will host Pittsburgh in the BIG EAST opener on Friday, October 8 at Alumni Hall. First serve is slated for 7 p.m.