Nicki Ainsworth was one kill short of a double-double with nine kills and 10 digs.
The Gustavus volleyball team suffered its first MIAC loss of the season at the hands of sixth-ranked St. Thomas 3-0 Friday night in St. Peter. Three St. Thomas players hit double-digit kills for a .432 hitting percentage to help the Tommies extend their 14-game winning streak. Meghan Gehring led the Gusties offensively with 11 kills. Bridget Burtzel (Cold Spring, Minn.) distributed 28 assists in the losing effort. Gustavus fell to 11-3 overall and 2-1 in the MIAC, while St. Thomas improved to 14-2 and remains unbeaten in the MIAC at 4-0.
St. Thomas got an early 5-0 lead and pushed the score to 23-15 in game one. The Gusties countered with a 4-0 run to cut the lead to 23-19 with a St. Thomas ball handling error and kills from Andrea Kron (Cold Spring, Minn.) and Nicki Ainsworth (Eden Prairie, Minn.). The Tommies never relinquished the lead though and closed out game one by the score of 30-27.
Game two was a seesaw battle in the early stages until Emily Foster stepped behind the service line at 12-11. St. Thomas scored four points during the rotation with three kills and a Gustavus hitting error to build a 16-11 lead. The Tommies never allowed Gustavus to get back into game two winning 30-21.
Game three was similar to game one with St. Thomas jumping out to a 7-2 lead. Gustavus was not able to gain any momentum and was held to a .038 hitting percentage, while St. Thomas had .233. The Tommies finished game three 30-19.
Meghan Gehring (Eau Claire, Wis.) compiled 11 kills on the night with a .258 hitting percentage, while Emily Klein (Red Wing, Minn.) had 19 digs. No other Gustie finished with double-digit kills. St. Thomas was led by Katie McCaffrey and Kristin Storrs, who finished with 14 and 11 kills, respectively.
Gustavus will continue MIAC play with a match against another unbeaten MIAC team, Bethel, Saturday at 3:00 pm in St. Peter.