St. Vincent volleyball team sweeps Credo to remain undefeated

Mustang girls continue to rule NCL II volleyball.|

St. Vincent closed with a flourish to hand fourth-place Credo of Rohnert Park a 3-0 volleyball setback in front of a big contingent of student supporters on Pink Tuesday night in DeCarli Gym on Tuesday.

The Lady Mustangs ran off 11 consecutive points to support the serves of Sarah Saralatte as they improved to 14-0 in North Central League II play, but a big obstacle might be around the corner at the end of the week.

On Friday, the galloping Mustangs will put their perfect league record on the line against highly competitive Roseland University Prep in the cozy confines of the Knight gym in Santa Rosa. The Lady Knights have not tasted defeat since losing to St. Vincent in the first match between the NCL II powers. A win by Roseland would throw first place into a tie.

Credo came into the St. Vincent game with a league mark of 7-5 and a hold on fourth place, but the visitors were no match for the heavy-hitting Mustangs. St. Vincent swept all three sets, 25-12, 25-20 and 25-5.

Sarlatte, named the Mustang of the Week for her play against Technology last week, found a big weakness in the Credo deep defenses by hitting several services to the back line as St. Vincent broke open the set with an impressive run of unanswered points. Sarlatte had eight aces.

Leading the way for the Mustangs was junior outside hitter Amanda Zeryny. She found nothing but open spaces with 10 well-struck kills in three sets with some major help from assists by Alexandra Saisi (18) and freshman Sophia Skubic. Most of the well-placed hits by Zeryny were too deep for the Lady Gryphons to return.

It was a well-balanced effort from the forces of coach Kelsey McIntire as hard-hitting Aly Kropelnicki, Georgia Foley and Margaret Coll all got a piece of the offensive action. The jump serves by team leader Kropelnicki forced Credo to answer weakly, and the Mustangs got some quick put-backs.

The work of Foley was especially effective in the third and deciding set as Credo could not put a stop to the Mustang scoring.

Credo narrowed the margin to 22-19 in the second set with the help of a block-and-point placement by 6-foot sophomore Aurora Quirt. Quirt got a two-hand block at center court and followed with a left-hand shot that St. Vincent could not handle. It was as close as the Gryphon could get as Coll put a quick shot away to wind things up in the Mustangs’ favor.

St. Vincent improved to 18-4 for the season with its fifth consecutive victory. With their undefeated league record, the Mustangs are currently ranked No. 2 in the North Coast Section volleyball ratings in Division V.

In a very entertaining preliminary contest, the Mustang junior varsity came roaring back to turn back Credo, 2-1, taking the deciding third set, 15-12. St. Vincent trailed 8-3 before rallying to pull out the winning set.

St. Vincent won the first set, 26-24, but fell, 27-25, in the second to force the tie-breaker.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.