The St. John’s Volleyball team had the chance to sweep the Bowling Green Falcons after going up 2-0 in sets. Instead, the opposite happened: getting reverse swept to end their triumphant season. 

Scoring on the day was led by Jones, tallying a double-double with 20 kills and 14 digs, while junior middle blocker Magda Stambroska totaled season-highs with five aces and 15.5 total points. In early play, the Red Storm were led by many aces, totaling 12 as a team on the day. This number deteriorated later in the game after Bowling Green made adjustments. 

“We made adjustments with our blocking, we stepped up and were just more disciplined with blocking and better defense. We created more opportunities and our hitters started swinging,” Head Coach Danijela Tomic said after the match.  

The Red Storm set the tone with an assertive start in the first set, taking a quick 7-2 lead that resulted in a Falcons timeout. The stoppage didn’t provide much support as the Johnnies continued to dominate on a 5-2 run highlighted by seven errors from the Bowling Green side. 

Stambroska dominated the Red Storm’s first set, spreading numbers throughout the stat sheet with one kill, three aces and three blocks. The Falcons fought back to trail 23-18 but it wasn’t enough.  The Red Storm won the first set 25-19 off of an attack error by the Falcon’s Lauryn Hovey. 

In set two, Bowling Green proved why they belonged in the NIVC Fab Four, but it still wasn’t enough to overcome St. John’s. They jumped out to a quick 2-0 start, but quickly found themselves trailing the Red Storm 9-5, calling timeout to hopefully regroup as a team. The Falcons came out of the timeout led by Hovey, trailing the Johnnies 16-15. 

In a play to hopefully grow momentum and tie the set, the Falcons scored off an error from the Red Storm, but senior outside hitter Giorgia Walther advised for a challenge call as it hit off one of the Bowling Green players. 

The call was reversed; from there it was the Red Storm leading into their second-set victory, 25-20. Jones was a key factor in the Johnnies’ second win, adding eight kills and six digs. 

A 6-2 set lead ultimately wasn’t enough to build off of for the Red Storm who dropped set three. Following a timeout from the Falcons, Jones and senior setter Wiktoria Kowalczyk collided as they both went for the ball, leaving Jones with a head injury she played through. 

This wouldn’t be the only miscommunication of the set. On multiple plays, the Johnnies couldn’t string rallies off to each other. 

A 5-3 run led by Giorgia Walther put the Red Storm right back into the match, trailing 20-19, but Hovey silenced the storm and added onto her four-kill set to win it for the Falcons, 25-23.

Bowling Green erased the Red Storm’s 2-0 lead. The Bowling Green team had a 54 attacking percentage but were also helped out by the Red Storm who struggled to stay in the set. With a 24-13 lead, the Red Storm showed a sign of life, going on a 4-0 stretch led by junior outside hitter Lucrezia Lodi with two kills. The set was ended directly after the Bowling Green timeout by a service error, finishing   25-17. 

Both the Bowling Green St. John’s had it all on the line in set five. 

The Red Storm, having used both of their timeouts from during the third set early, took the chance to regroup and jumped to a 5-2 lead in the fifth, driven by outstanding play from the whole lineup. Switching sides, the Johnnies led 8-6, as the match continued back and forth to the end. The Red Storm called their final timeout trailing 12-11 after a quick 3-0 run from the Falcons led by Hovey. The match came down to the wire — St. Johns had the Falcons tied at 14 with the momentum, but Bowling Green rolled back and won the match 16-14.

The final set scores were 25-19, 25-20, 23-25, 17-25 and 14-16. 

In light of the loss, the team took a moment to congratulate junior right-side hitter Erin Jones for her career 1,000 kills. 

“It reminds me of how far I’ve come,” Jones said. ”Freshman year I wasn’t playing as much, and things have really turned around for me because of how much I’ve put into work.”  Erin Jones finished with a career-best season of  504 kills, 316 assists, 58 aces and 748 digs.

“It’s difficult to find the words because we love all that we do,” Head Coach Joanne Persico said postgame. “It’s always hard to end in a fifth-set reverse sweep at home. It’s difficult to swallow, so that taste will be with us and we’re gonna try to use that for motivation.” 

The St. John’s Women’s Volleyball team closed out a remarkable season with a 24-13 record, cementing their legacy by reaching the NIVC Fab Four for the first time in program history.