Senior middle blocker Kassi Wirth recorded 8 kills and four total blocks in Saint Peter's straight set loss to the Canisius College Golden Griffins. The Peacocks now drop to 1-17, 0-5 MAAC on the season, while the Griffs improve to 8-7 and a perfect 5-0 in conference play.
The Peacocks started off the first frame matching the Golden Golden Griffins point for point (5-5) until the visitors went on a 4-0 run to jump in front 9-5. Saint Peter's battled back and managed to knot the score at 10-10 following a double-block by Lesxi Wirth and Brittany Smith and a service ace from Laura Reinhart. A hitting error by the Griffs gave the hosts a brief one point lead, until a kill by Samantha Good tied the score again. Both teams continued to exchang points, until Canisius outscored Saint Peter's 5-1 over the following minutes to force Head Coach Andrew Brown to call a timeout. Canisius responded to the intermission by rattling off four consecutive points, all Peacock unforced errors, to take a 21-13 lead. Saint Peter's would lose the frame 25-15.
Saint Peter's hung close in the second set, trailing by just three points at 12-9, until Canisius proceeded to go on a 5-2 run to open up the game (17-11). The Peacocks crawled back to within three on two separate occasions (17-14, 19-16) until the visitors closed out the frame outscoring the hosts 6-1.
Canisius maintained their momentum heading into set three establishing a 10-3 advantage to open the stanza. Saint Peter's hit -.029 in the frame and recorded just six kills en route to a 25-10 defeat.
Laura Reinhart contributed a team-high 11 digs in the loss, while Jenny Pliska finished with 10. Kristina Baehr added 17 assists and 6 digs.
Saint Peter's returns to action tomorrow, for a 2pm game against Niagara University.
