JOLIET, Ill. --- The TIU women's volleyball team returned to the road on Saturday night as they visited the Fighting Saints of St. Francis at the Sullivan Center in Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) action. After splitting their first two home matches of the season earlier this week, the Trojans looked to post consecutive wins for the first time this year, while facing off against a USF team that has proven to be a challenge the last few seasons.

Two days after their best offensive match of the season, Trinity's attack struggled as errors hurt the Trojans, giving up 14 points to the Saints on attack errors alone in the opening set. St. Francis would jump ahead early before the Trojans mounted a small comeback to tighten things up, but the Saints would take the opening frame 25-22.

TIU would struggle again in the second, this time in trying to get their attacks past USF's seemingly impenetrable defense at the net. The Saints would jump out to an 8-1 lead with the Trojans having trouble finding their momentum, and win the second set in commanding fashion, 25-13.

In the third, USF jumped out to another fast lead at 9-2 as TIU continued to struggle on the attack with ten errors in the frame. Trinity was able to slowly crawl their way back into contention for the set, even taking a brief lead at 13-12, but would not be able to slow down the Saint machine, dropping the third frame 25-20 and falling in straight sets.

For the third straight match, Matty Hawkins led Trinity with nine kills on offense, while Brianna Torres notched seven kills and 14 digs on defense. Anna Skryzpchak posted 17 assists and ten digs in the loss, with defensive specialist Jaylyn Freeman recording a team-high 17 digs. Emma Gallegos would record two of TIU's four service aces on the night.

ADDITIONAL GAME NOTES

• The Trojans fall to 9-15 all-time against St. Francis after their loss on Saturday. The loss also snapped Trinity's six match winning streak against the Saints dating back to 2018.

• Saturday's loss marks the first time since 2015 that the Trojans have lost at least seven of their first nine matches. The 2015 TIU women's volleyball team started 1-8 in head coach Luke Ward's first season.

• This season marks the first time since 2016 that TIU has started with at least two conference losses in their first four CCAC matches. The 2016 team started 1-4 in league play.

• TIU drops to 2-2 in three set matches this season with their loss at USF.

• The Trojans recorded a season-low 31 total kills in Saturday night's loss. TIU is averaging 45.7 kills as a team through nine matches

• Despite committing a season-low 15 attack errors at St. Francis, the Trojans are still averaging 22.3 attack errors per match.

• St. Francis out-blocked TIU 12-3 as part of their tough defensive effort at the net.

• With her 17 kills on Saturday, setter Anna Skrzypchak passed Skyler Muramoto (2019-20) for seventh on the program's all-time career assist list with 965.

• Senior defensive specialist Jaylyn Freeman reached 1,900 career digs with her 17 dig performance at USF, setting herself up to soon join the 2,000 career digs club. Freeman, who accumulated 1,319 digs at Gadsden State Community College (2018-19), has notched 586 digs for the Trojans in the past two seasons.

UP NEXT

The Trojans (2-7) will return to action on Tuesday night on the road as they visit the Governors State Jaguars in University Park. First serve is scheduled for 7:00pm CST at the Athletics-Recreation Center, with the game being broadcast live on the Jaguar Sports Network.

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Trinity International University is a comprehensive, national university affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America and located in Bannockburn, Illinois, 25 miles north of Chicago. TIU educates men and women to engage in God's redemptive work in the world by cultivating academic excellence, Christian faithfulness and lifelong learning.