The St. John’s volleyball team was able to salvage the third match of their west coast trip with a 3-1 win over San Jose State at the Cal Molten Classic.

After dropping the season opener to No. 5 California Golden Bears, and their second match to UC Santa Barbara, the ladies in red needed a bounce-back match and they got it. The scores of the match were 25-16, 17-25, 26-24 and 25-17.

Senior Valeria Koveleva registered her second double-double of the season with team high 17 kills and 11 digs.

The Red Storm never trailed in the first set, but had to rally from behind in both sets three and four to take the match after dropping the second.

Kovaleva currently leads the team in kills with 33 and senior Lena Yee recorded a team-high 39 digs on the west coast.

Senior middle hitter Chen Chen has been the Red Storm’s best defender recording eight blocks in the team’s first three matches.
Setter Wioleta Lescyznska is averaging 8.9 assists a game so far.

On Friday, a high-powered California team swept all three games of the season opener on August 29, as did UCSB a day later. The team was far from out of their league against their first two Californian opponents.

Against Cal, the Red Storm held three separate leads in the second set, but couldn’t find a way to capitalize after leading 18-15. The third set found the Red Storm tied on seven different occasions until Cal took the lead for good at 16-15. The match ended 25-14, 25-22, and
25-18.

The team was close to the Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara all day Sunday as the match facts reflect.

Every game in the match was close and the women of St. John’s held leads in every game. The team lost by less than five points in every game, 25-20, 25-20 and 25-21.

Up next for the Red Storm volleyball team is a trip to New Britain, Conn. to take on the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils. The match will be on Wednesday, Sept. 3, at 7 p.m. at CCSU’s Detrick Gymnasium.