Pirates Drop BIG EAST Opener at St. John's, 3-1

Friday, September 27

Queens, N.Y. / Carnesecca Arena

7:00 PM

Seton Hall University

6-6,0-1Big East

St. John's

12-3,1-0Big East

Seton Hall

St. John's (NY)

Hadlee Ackerman digs a ball against Kent State on Sept. 8

9/27/2024 10:17:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score BOX SCORE (.pdf)

QUEENS, N.Y. – Sophomore Senna Roberts-Navarro (Honolulu, Hawaii) had 11 kills and Reagan Merk (Huntington Beach, Calif.) notched a double-double, but the Seton Hall women's volleyball team fell at St. John's, 3-1 (25-23, 19-25, 12-25, 14-25), in its BIG EAST opener on Friday.

The Hall surprised the Red Storm with a 25-23 set one victory, but St. John's overwhelmed the depleted Pirates in sets two through four. Seton Hall registered a season-low .036 attack percentage for the match due largely to the Red Storm's staunch defense.

Roberts-Navarro had 11 kills, six digs and a career-high five blocks. Merk collected her fifth straight double-double with 11 kills, 11 digs and three service aces. Junior Hadlee Ackerman (Atlanta, Ga.), making her first Seton Hall start at libero, matched her career-high with 14 digs

SET 1:
The opening set featured eight ties and four lead changes. Leading 9-8, The Hall scored seven of the next 10 points, and an ace by Merk extended its lead to 16-11. Down 18-13, St. John's went on a 6-1 burst to tie the set at 19. After four more ties, back-to-back kills by Merk gave The Hall a 25-23 set one victory. Merk had five kills and five digs in the opening set alone.

SET 2:
In a strong defensive set by both teams, St. John's came out on top in the second stanza. With the score tied at 14, the Red Storm scored four of the next five points to jump ahead 18-15. The Hall rallied, and a cut its deficit to 19-18, but St. John's closed out the set with a 6-1 run. The Hall attacked at only a -.029 clip in the second set with no Pirate collecting more than two kills.

SET 3:
St. John's led the third set wire-to-wire, jumping out to a commanding 11-2 advantage. From there, The Hall never cut its deficit to fewer than eight points in a 25-12 set three loss.

SET 4:
The Pirates' offensive efficiency in set four was improved, but St. John's attacked at a .440 clip in the clincher. With the score tied at three early, the Red Storm scored seven straight to jump ahead, 10-3. A block by Roberts-Navarro and Asli Subasili (Tekirdag, Turkiye) cut The Hall's deficit to 13-10, but St. John's answered with a 9-2 run to grab a commanding 22-12 advantage. The Red Storm went on to win the finale, 25-14.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

Roberts-Navarro had 11 kills, six digs and a career-high five blocks.
Merk tallied a double-double with 11 kills, 11 digs and three aces.
Ackerman matched her career-high with 14 digs.
Senior Maddie Klungel (Napa, Calif.) collected a team-high 30 assists to go with four digs, two blocks and two kills.
Freshman Grace Turner (La Grange Highlands, Ill.) matched her career-high with six blocks.
Seton Hall recorded a .036 attack percentage for the match, while St. John's attacked at .256.
The Pirates had 36 kills, while St. John's had 54.
The Hall recorded 48 digs, while the Red Storm had 63.
Seton Hall collected 10.0 blocks and St. John's had 11.0.

NEWS & NOTES:

The Hall drops to 6-6 overall on the season, and suffers its first BIG EAST loss, while St. John's improves to 12-3 overall and 1-0 in conference play.
Seton Hall is now 20-22 all-time against the Red Storm.
Merk's double-double is her team-leading sixth of the season and her fifth in a row.
Seton Hall's last seven matches have all been four-set affairs (4-3).
Graduate student Perri Lucas (Chicago, Ill.) had five kills tonight and now needs only 31 kills to become the 12^th player in Seton Hall history to record 1,000 career kills.

UP NEXT:
The Pirates will return to action tomorrow when they return to historic Walsh Gymnasium to host BIG EAST Conference rival Villanova. Its start is scheduled for 5:00 p.m.