After head coach, Joanne Persico earned her 400th win against Providence, the St. John’s Volleyball team split their conference matches this past weekend in Carnesecca Arena by defeating Butler 3-0 Friday night and falling to Xavier 3-1 on Saturday.
The Red Storm are now currently 14-8 overall, while dropping to 3-4 in Conference play.
Junior setter Deniz Mutlugi returned into the lineup against Butler after missing two weeks due to injury. Mutlugi finished with 43 assists and nine digs in the Red Storm’s three sets sweep over the Bulldogs (25-19, 25-17, 25-20) to earn their first victory against the Bulldogs.
“It feels great to be back! It was tough sitting out and not being able to help my team the last few matches but I feel more comfortable now, “Mutlugil said. ”I have been with Ola and Karin for three years now and we have a great connection on and off the court. I didn’t have to tell them what to do, they already knew what to do and they were great tonight.”
Junior outside hitter, Karin Palgutova earned her eighth double-double of the season in Friday’s victory recording 17 kills and 12 digs. Senior outside hitter, Aleksandra Wachowicz finished with 14 kills on a .312 attacking percentage.
In the middle, freshman Julia Cast earned her first career start finishing with six kills, five blocks and three digs, while also delivering a service ace to give the Red Storm the final point of the second set 25-17 victory. Senior Ashley Boursiquot posted eight kills and four blocks.
In Saturday’s loss to Xavier (20-25, 25-18, 22-25, 15-25), coach Joanne Persico stated, “I thought they were very good digging and we were slow of step, maybe last night’s took a lot out of us then we thought playing back-to-back games.”
Karin Palgutova led the Johnnies with yet another double-double recording 15 kills to go along with 16 digs. Deniz Mutlugil had a match-high 34 assists, moving into fifth place all-time in St. John’s in that category.
The Red Storm will look to bounce back as they will get back on the road this weekend for a pair of Big East rival matches against Creighton (Oct. 17, 7 p.m.) and Georgetown (Oct. 19, 2 p.m.)
“Every weekend is a big week in the Big-East, We’ve gone out to Nebraska, their very good in Nebraska but hopefully we’ll rebound, Coach Persico said. “We will have a week to regroup, get healthy and hopefully come back with a better result.”
