Box Score
Box Score

QUEENS, N.Y. – The La Salle Explorers volleyball team dropped three nail biting sets to St. John's (23-25, 22-25, 23-25) on Wednesday evening in Queens, New York. Junior Kelly Perillo led the team with 10 kills and nine digs. Classmate Laura Kuhlmeier added in eight kills of her own on the night.
 
"I was extremely pleased to see how well my team competed on the same court where I played in so many memorable matches," said coach Caitlin Rimgaila, who was making a return to her alma mater for the match. "We served and passed really well and the girls followed our scouting report to a tee. A few less unforced errors and we may have seen a different result."

The Explorers came out and battled in set one. Despite falling behind 15-18 La Salle was able to fight back and tie things up at 21 after a Perillo kill. After grabbing a 22-21 lead off of a Michelle Healy ace, the Red Storm were able to fight back and take the set 23-25. Perillo led the team with five kills in set one with Laura Kuhlmeier adding in three of her own.
 
Set two proved to be as competitive as the first. With things tied at 13, the Explorers were able to heat up and extend a bit of a lead. A Perillo ace followed by a nice two-person block from Rachel Carr and Kuhlmeier extended the advantage to 16-13 for the Explorers, and forced a St. John's timeout. La Salle continued to press extending their lead to four after a Rachel Melich ace gave them a 19-15 lead. The Red Storm came out of the timeout and scored four straight points to even things at 19-19 and force a La Salle timeout. The Explorers were eventually able to grab a 21-20 lead after a Cook ace down the line. However, St. John's again got hot at the end of the set and was able to pull it out, 22-25 to take a two set lead into the break.
 
Despite going down early, the Explorers fought back in set three. Down 1-4, La Salle was able to go on a 6-0 run culminating in a block from Carr and Phoebe Cook to give the Explorers a 7-4 advantage. The rest of the set went back and forth with things getting tied up at 23-23 late in the set. Again, the Johnnies were able to get hot at the right time and pull out the third set, 23-25. Perillo added four kills and four digs in the set. 
 
Michelle Healy led the team with 28 assists on the night averaging 9.3 assists per set. The Explorers remained a dangerous team on the serve, adding seven service aces on the night, including three by Perillo.
                                
La Salle returns to action this Friday when they head to the Palestra for the Big 5 Tournament, opening up the action against Temple at 4 p.m. before facing Penn and Villanova on Saturday to close out the tournament.