ST. PAUL, Minn. -- St. Thomas Volleyball took down Northern Illinois in four sets (25-21, 19-25, 25-19, 25-17) Saturday to claim the title of the Tommie Invitational Volleyball Tournament in Schoenecker Arena. Senior
Lauren Galvin and junior
Tezra Rudzitis combined for 32 kills as the Tommies improve to 3-3 overall.
Rudzitis led the Tommies with 17 kills, tying a career best, on a .333 hitting percentage while Galvin followed with 15 kills and 10 digs for her third double-double of the season. Sophomore
Morgan Kealy totaled 40 assists, her second straight game with at least 40, and joined Galvin on the all-tournament team.
Galvin recorded her first kill early in set one to spark a quick 3-0 run for a 4-3 lead. The Huskies took the lead back as part of six lead changes through the rest of the set. Galvin and sophomore
Ellie Gustafson accounted for one kill each to help St. Thomas score three of the final four points for the set win. Late in the set, junior
Ella Voegele recorded her 1,000th career dig, 561 during her time with St. Thomas.
NIU set the tone in the second set with an 11-2 opening run. Despite St. Thomas scoring four of the next five points and eventually cutting the lead to four, 20-16, the Huskies hit .243 to even the match.
Like the previous two sets, the Huskies held the first lead but saw the Tommies bounce back to nab a 6-5 advantage off a kill from redshirt freshman
Addie Schmotzer. The teams traded leads one more time with the final lead started by a 6-0 St. Thomas run that included kills from Galvin, Rudzitis and Schmotzer, and ended on a service ace by sophomore
Morgan Kealy. Shortly after, the Tommie lead was extended to nine, 19-10, which allowed the Purple to hold off a late Huskie rush.
The Tommies started off the final set with five straight points and grew the lead to as many as nine late. The Purple hit .311 in the final set with just two attack errors while Rudzitis' final kill secured the tournament win.
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