AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria Volleyball team fell 3-0 to the St. Thomas Bobcats Wednesday night in their second to last game of the regular season. The Gyrenes showed a little fight in the final set but could not clinch the frame to extend the match.
The first two sets went very quickly with the Bobcats winning 25-12 and 25-10. The Gyrenes posted a negative hitting percentage in the two frames combined with 17 attack errors against 14 kills. On the other side of the net, St. Thomas tallied 25 kills and just three errors across the two sets. St. Thomas also had five aces across the two frames to Ave Maria's one.
The third set is where the Gyrenes show a little life. St. Thomas built up a four-point lead early in the frame, but this time Ave Maria was able to come back. The Gyrenes won the next four points in a row to tie the set at 11, getting a kill from Emily Child, an ace from Caroline Myers and, different from the first two sets, two attack errors from the Bobcats. The Gyrenes worked four more ties following that run and even led twice late in the set 18-17 and 19-18.
The two kept dancing around each other and found themselves knotted up at 21. Unfortunately, St. Thomas won the final four points of the set to clinch the match.
Child led the team in kills with eight, recording over a quarter of Ave Maria's scoring attacks. Maria Texiera was the leading setter with 10 assists. Behind the line, The Gyrenes notched two aces from Ryan Getz and Myers.
Defensively, Abbey Grose led the team with 11 digs. At the net, Lillian Dauses led the team with two total blocks.
With the loss, Ave Maria falls to 8-14 on the year and 6-7 in Sun Conference play. The Gyrenes will fall behind Keiser in the standings for just a moment as the Seahawks beat Florida Memorial Wednesday and have played one more game than the Gyrenes. However, if the Gyrenes win their final game on Saturday, they will tie Keiser for fourth place in the standings and own the tiebreaker having swept Keiser in the regular season for the first time since 2013. That would give Ave Maria home court advantage over the Seahawks in the Sun Conference Quarterfinal November 11.
The team standing in the way of Ave Maria hosting their first playoff game since 2020 is the Webber Warriors. Webber is currently tied with Warner for the sixth and final spot in the tournament but owns the tiebreaker over the Royals. The Warriors will definitely be looking for a win to get some separation with the Royals so the Gyrenes will have to be ready for Webber's best.
The match on Saturday will also be senior day for the Gyrenes as it it's the final home weekend match of the season. It is also part of a triple header on campus with Women's Basketball playing an exhibition in the morning and Football closing their home schedule as well at night. Opening serve is set for 2 p.m. and the game will be streamed live on the Urban Edge Network.
