The St. John’s Women’s Volleyball team entered the Nov. 22 weekend as the fifth seed in the Big East with two conference games remaining. To clinch a Big East Tournament spot, the team needed to win one game. 

On Nov. 22, they faced the No. 3 UConn Huskies ( 24-6, 12-6 Big East), a team who already clinched the tournament, while on Nov. 23 they faced the No. 11 Providence Friars (8-21, 1-17 Big East). 

Game One vs. UConn Huskies: 

The Friday night contest against the Huskies didn’t last long. The Huskies dominated the night defensively, totaling 40 digs on the night, led by freshman libero McKenna Brand with  14. St John’s struggled all night with the line drives volleyed to the backcourt, most of Uconn’s points awarded were earned off of these plays. 

Senior outside hitter Giorgia Walther led the way for the Red Storm in scoring, totaling 13 kills on 35 total attacks while junior setter Erin Jones had 12 kills on 27 attacks. 

The Huskies’ stifling defense was on full display in the first set, totaling 14 digs with Brand accounting for five herself. The Johnnies fell to a 4-0 deficit and tried to fight back. Trailing by 11-6, junior outside hitter Lucrezia Lodi and Walther had two kills each and forced UConn into a timeout — the only momentum steering position of the set. The Red Storm dropped the first set of the night 25-16 with a low attack rate of 13%. 

UConn continued to weather the Storm with their defense, matching their total digs from the first set with 14, but St. John’s kept the second set close, going back and forth to start before calling a timeout trailing down by two. Walther and Jones both had huge impacts on the stanza, with five and six kills to add to their performance. The Storm forced a hard-fought set, trailing  23-21,, but fell just short in the end at  25-23. 

Set three kept the same story that set two had, a close back-and-forth matchup that ended just short at the end in the visiting team’s favor. The Johnnie’s trailed 15-9 before a timeout was called, committing five attack errors during their deficit. A 90-plus second rally between the two Big East rivals put the Red Storm on top through a Ludovica Zola kill and closed the deficit to 21-20. The Huskies ultimately caught fire to win the final set of the night, 25-21.

The final set scores of 25-16, 25-23 and 25-21.  

Game Two vs. Providence Friars: 

The St. John’s Women’s Volleyball program took the time before their second-weekend contest on Nov. 23 to recognize their four seniors Bree Martin, Wiktoria Kowalczyk, Ariana Robinson and Giorgia Walther, also recognizing seniors playing for the Providence Friars. 

The final match of the weekend went completely different for the Red Storm. The team won the first two sets on the night but struggled to put the Friars out in the third set, ultimately winning the final match of the regular season in the fourth. Jones tallied her eighth triple-double during in-conference play, breaking a record set by Seton Hall’s Shelbey Manthrope in 2013 for the most in-conference triple-doubles in a single season. 

 Jones had a dominant statline of 15 kills, 21 assists and 16 digs, continuing a strong campaign for a second straight Big East All-Conference Team. She wasn’t the only Johnny with 10 plus kills, Walther and Lodi tied for the most kills on the team with 16. 

Set one was controlled by the Red Storm who jumped out to an 11-6 lead, led by Lodi who tallied four kills and four digs before the Friars called a timeout. Sophomore Rashanny Solano Smith seemed to have injured her finger when they led 16-11 but remained in for the remainder of the contest. The stoppage led to a battle back from Providence, who fought to a 24-23 deficit led by four kills from senior outside hitter Shaliyah Rhoden. Jones quickly put the battle to rest with her third kill of the set, giving St. John’s a 1-0 set lead. 

Both teams battled to start the second set with Providence trailing 8-6 before calling a timeout. 

From there, Giorgia Walther added six kills and Wiktoria Kowalczyk added seven assists. St. John’s went on a 7-2 run to end the second set at a 25-16 score thanks to a final kill from Jones. 

Set three provided a different story. The Friars trailed early but quickly gained momentum off their timeout, going on a 4-0 run. The Johnnies made the set a must-watch back-and-forth set, bringing the score to 18-17 in the Red Storm’s favor.

Providence cashed in off two straight errors committed by the Storm to go up one. A sudden surge at the end led by Walther was not enough as Providence claimed the set 25-22. St. John’s committed a total of seven errors in the third set, matching the total from the first two sets alone. 

The final game of the regular season finished in the fourth set. The Storm dominated the Friars early, leading 7-2 before four total errors were committed. Providence attempted to go on a run but was shut down. The Storm commanded play in a 25-13 set win.  Jones had six more kills alone in the set, along with four service aces. 

The final scores of the sets were 25-23, 25-16, 22-25 and 25-13. 

With the critical 3-1 win over the Providence Friars, the St. John’s Women’s Volleyball team successfully clinched a spot in the Big East Tournament, marking their third straight tournament appearance and sixth out of their last seven seasons. 

The No. 5 seeded St. John’s Red Storm will begin tournament play on Wednesday, Nov. 27 at D.J. Sokol Arena in Omaha, against the No. 4 seeded  DePaul Blue Devils, a team they split with during the season.