The Gustavus volleyball team suffered its first conference defeat of the season on Wednesday night losing to St. Thomas in St. Paul. The game scores were 24-30, 30-23, 21-30, 24-30. The Gusties are now 15-7 overall and 6-1 in the MIAC.
St. Thomas got off to an early lead and never trailed on its way to claiming game one 30-24. In game two it was the Gusties who jumped out to an early lead and held on for the 30-23 victory.
In the pivotal third game, St. Thomas held a slim 23-20 lead, but then the Tommies scored seven of the last eight points to close out the game 30-21. In game four, Gustavus fell behind 6-1 but scored 12 of the next 20 points to close the gap to 14-13. UST countered with eight unanswered points to take a commanding 22-13 lead. The Gusties would get no closer than six points the rest of the way and the Tommies closed out the match with a 30-24 victory.
The Gusties got 16 kills from Jennifer Thelemann, 38 assists and 11 digs from Bridget Burtzell, and 19 digs from Emily Klein.
For UST, Katie McCaffrey had 11 kills, and four blocks; Sarah Rainey had 27 assists and nine digs; and Katie Kremer had 23 digs.
The Gusties, who are now in a second place tie with St. Thomas, will host first place Concordia (7-0) on Friday at 7:00 pm at Gus Young Court. Gustavus will video stream the match on the internet. Those interested in watching the contest can link to the broadcast here.