JAMAICA, NY.  Stephanie Schindel tallied a team-high 14 kills to lead the visiting Connecticut Huskies (18-11, 7-4) to a three-game sweep (15-13, 15-11, 15-12) over St. Johns University (24-8, 7-4) Friday evening in a BIG EAST match in Alumni Hall.

With the victory the Huskies clinch the fourth and final berth in the 2000 BIG EAST tournament, to be held next week in South Bend, Ind. Coming into the match, St. Johns, 7-3 in the league, was tied for third place with Pittsburgh, which had already secured its place as the No. 3 seed in the tournament. Connecticut was tied for fifth with Syracuse, both with 6-4 league marks. Taking into consideration the numerous tie-breaking rules between St. Johns, Connecticut and Syracuse, all of which could conceivably finish the season with 7-4 BIG EAST records, the outcome of the St. Johns/Connecticut match would decide who would advance to the BIG EAST championship.

The Storm, which had never taken a single game from the Huskies in the previous six meetings dating back to 1994, had their chances in all three games. The Storm bolted to a 6-2 lead in game one but the Huskies were quick to respond, tying the score at 8-8 on blocks by Laura Wooley and Christine Lambert. The Storm hit into the blockers again as the Huskies grabbed their first lead of the match at 9-8. After a St. Johns timeout, freshman Rosalyn Dang tied things up at 9-9 with one of her six kills. She then served up an ace to regain the lead for St. Johns. Freshman Robyn Kurasaki and sophomore Meaghan Creedon put up a huge rejection to make it 11-9. Though the momentum appeared to be on St. Johns side, the tide quickly turned as Julie Erbez smacked down a kill and Janice Dykema put down a pair to give the Huskies a 12-11 advantage. An error by Olga Roudovski made it 13-11, and after several side outs, SJU was able to take advantage of a hitting error by Uconn to cut the lead to 13-12. Lambert sided the ball out for the Huskies and Erbez aced the Storm to give them game-point at 14-12. St. Johns was able to deny the Huskies the game on numerous occasions, and even closed to 14-13, but Melissa Wooley came up with the game-clinching block to give the Huskies the 1-0 lead in the match.In the second game it was the Huskies who got off to the fast start at 4-0 but the Storm played catch up and eventually tied it at 5-5 on an ace by Kurasaki. The Storm would own a 7-5 lead thanks to a kill by Roudovski and blocks by Roudovski and Amanda Berg, but the Huskies would not be denied as they inched back into it and at one point tied the score at 8-8 on blocks by Lambert and Maria Shaker. The Huskies would not surrender that lead and went on to take the second game 15-11.

The Storm then had the unfortunate fate of having to sweep the next three games to eliminate the Huskies. After falling behind 3-1, the Storm scored the next six straight points to go up 7-3. As they had done so many times previous, the Huskies managed to claw back into it, and tied the score at 8-8 on a kill by Schindel. St. Johns went up 9-8 after an error by Laura Wooley, but then found themselves tied again after a hitting error by Creedon. The Huskies would then go on to string together the next three points and owned a 12-9 advantage. After Kristy Mercein sided the ball out to St. Johns with one of her seven kills, Dang served up another ace to make it 12-10. The Huskies would find themselves up 13-10 after an error by Mercein, but the Storm caught a lucky break when a free ball off the forearms of freshman Mariela Barraza dropped down between three Huskies, and the lead was cut to 13-11. Mercein cut the deficit to just one with another ace, making it 13-12. But just as the Storm saw some daylight, the Huskies quickly shut the door. On serve, Schindel put away the match-clinching kill to advance her squad to the 2000 BIG EAST championship.

Berg led the Storm with 14 kills and only four errors for a .435 hitting percentage. Roudovski finished with a double double with a match-high 17 kills and 14 digs. For the match, the Huskies amassed 18 total blocks on a pair of solo blocks and 32 block assists.

The Storm will close out the 2000 season tomorrow afternoon when they host non-conference foe Robert Morris at 4:00 in Alumni Hall. The Storm will also recognize its four seniors, Amanda Berg, Stephanie Luehr, Aleeza Miller and Olga Roudovski, who will be playing the final game of their college career in Alumni Hall.