Thanks to a win Monday at Duchesne, the Borgia volleyball Lady Knights continue to lead the Archdiocesan Athletic Association standings.
Borgia (13-8-3, 8-0) began their second lap around the league with a 25-15, 25-21 victory at Duchesne (1-11, 0-7) Monday.
“One of our goals is to win the conference,” Borgia Head Coach Brad Bruns said. “We’ve got to keep taking our win tally up. Every team is going to give us a good game.”
The win allowed Borgia to stay a half-match ahead of St. Dominic (15-6-3, 8-1), which won a three-game victory at Bishop DuBourg Monday.
Borgia and St. Dominic face off next Monday, Oct. 8, in what potentially could resolve the league race. Borgia beat St. Dominic in two games at Borgia Sept. 10.
But there’s still plenty of action before that time. The Lady Knights play Wednesday at Rosati-Kain, one of last year’s AAA champions. The Kougars rank fourth in the league with a 5-3 mark.
In Monday’s match, the Lady Knights came out and dominated from the opening play.
Freshman Emma Kriete put down a kill to send junior Sarah Geatley back to the service line. By the time she left, Borgia was up 6-1. The Lady Knights continued to roll and led 9-1 after Duchesne expended both of its timeouts in a two-point stretch.
“The first game was pretty amazing,” Bruns said.
Borgia continued to dominate and never was threatened, winning 25-15. The final point came on a bump kill by sophomore defensive specialist Molly Arand.
The second game was completely the opposite. Duchesne, which took Borgia to three games in the season opener, bounced back to take the early lead.
“We sat back on our heels and made it more challenging,” Bruns said. “We’ve got to keep the pressure on a team when we’ve got them down. We made some mistakes. Give Duchesne credit. They hung in there and made us earn the victory.”
Borgia worked back and tied it at 11-11. Back-to-back aces by Erin Hillerman put Borgia ahead.
The teams continued to trade the lead and Duchesne was up 20-18 when Borgia made its run. Hillerman put down a pass which strayed over the net. Senior Katie Lindemann then tied it with a kill and an error put the Lady Knights on top.
Senior Taylor Mentz followed with a kill and Borgia never looked back. An error gave the Lady Knights the match, 25-21.
Kriete led the Lady Knights with seven kills while Mentz ended with six. Geatley and Hillerman each had four. Senior Hanna Glastetter posted three while Junior Janie Arand, Molly Arand and Lindemann had one kill apiece.
Sophomore Alivia Brinker led the team in digs with 14 while Geatley closed with nine, Molly Arand had five, sophomore Jordan Kriete chipped in with two and Glastetter posted one.
Janie Arand led the team with 15 assists while sophomore Maddie Toelke had 11 and Lindemann recorded two.
Glastetter had 1.5 blocks, Emma Kriete ended with one and Geatley had a block assist.
Hillermann had three of Borgia’s six aces. Janie Arand, Geatley and Toelke recorded one apiece.
Borgia also won the JV match, 25-18, 25-12. There was no freshman match.
