INCARNATE WORD d. ST. MARY’S
20-25, 25-13, 28-26, 21-25, 15-10
On top of being a tough match against a long-time, cross-town rival, Incarnate Word put the finisher on its bid for the Heartland Conference post-season tournament berth with a drawn out five set win at St. Mary’s.
The victory put UIW at 9-3 in the Heartland (21-8 on the year) and maintained the Cardinals hold on second place in the race. Incarnate Word is now down to two conference matches to play one of which will be at St. Edward’s on November 5. SEU resides at the top of the league heap with an 11-1 mark and seems assured of the top seed in the tournament.
The victory for UIW pushed St. Mary’s out of the tournament picture. The Rattlers currently are 5-7 in the Heartland with but a pair of matches remaining. Third place now is Dallas Baptist at 7-3 and fourth is Texas / Permian Basin at 6-4. Those two have back-to-back matches with each other in the first week of November.
In the UIW-St. Mary’s match the Cardinals got double-figure kills out of three players. Freshman outside Nikki Morfin led with 13 followed closely by senior outside Emily Kopecki and senior middle Edie Weise with 12 each. Junior setter Sarah Nordman had 45 assists while Morfin led all with 25 digs on defense.
The Cardinals lost the first set but rallied to win two and three, the latter in extra points 28-26. St. Mary’s came back to win the fourth and send the match to the fifth and deciding set.
Neither team hit at a particularly high rate as the Cardinals were .144 on the night. The UIW defense limited St. Mary’s to but .102 collectively in the hitting department.
Next up for Incarnate Word is the final home match of the season. It is Saturday at noon when Arkansas / Fort Smith comes to the McDermott Center. This is the first match ever between these two. UAFS will be a member of the Heartland next year after UIW moves on to the Lone Star Conference.
Saturday also is the annual senior day for Cardinals volleyball. The team and its fans will honor the four players prior to their final match at home. The four saying goodbye to the home court are Kopecki, Weise, and two defensive specialists Lauren McCreless and Stephanie Tomasik.