COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College women's volleyball team rallied from one set down and a five-point hole in the fifth set to nab a 3-2 (20-25, 25-18, 18-25, 25-23, 16-14) victory over Pace University on Saturday during Northeast-10 Conference play in the Ross Sports Center.
 
RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (6-12, 2-2 NE10), Pace (7-7, 1-2 NE10)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Senior Alexandra Báez Rentas (San Juan, Puerto Rico/New Dimensions), 47 assists, 21 digs, 4 kills, 2 aces
• Senior Aaliyah Huihui-Martinez (Salinas, Calif./Notre Dame), 13 digs
• Senior Jillian Orth (Bourne, Mass./Bourne), 3 aces
• Junior Dana Welch (Howell, N.J./Donovan Catholic), 7 kills
• Sophomore Grace Almeida (Clifton Park, N.Y./Shenendehowa), 15 kills, 3 aces, .387 hitting
• Sophomore Kyla Farnan (Phoenix, Ariz./Pinnacle), 24 digs, 3 aces
• First-year Kaeleigh Cucura (Redmond, Ore./Ridgeview), 5 kills, 5 blocks, .400 hitting
• First-year Nora Schulze (Hingham, Mass./Hingham), 13 kills, 3 blocks
• First-year D'Niaya Settles (Ames, Iowa/Ames), 12 kills

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Sophomore Karielys Melendez, 17 kills, 19 digs
• Sophomore Yasmeen Muhammad, 17 kills, 7 blocks
• First-year Lexi Zammit, 50 assists

MATCH FACTS

• Saint Michael's defeated Pace at home for the first time since Nov. 7, 2015, while winning its second straight meeting for the first time since 1997.
• Báez Rentas, the only player in program history among the top 10 in both career assists (1,893) and digs (995), moved within five digs of becoming the sixth Purple Knight with 1,000 career digs, but the first setter.

THE ACTION

• Two Melendez kills keyed a 5-0 run that produced an 8-3 lead for Pace in the opening set. The Purple Knights never came closer than three points again until Welch's kill made it 20-19, but the Setters scored five of the final six points.
• Orth's ace kicked off a 7-2 run in the second set, which Schulze capped with a kill to provide an 11-4 lead. Saint Michael's never again led by fewer than three points.
• The teams played through five ties in set No. 3 before Pace blew open a two-point set with a 3-0 run that created a 21-16 cushion on senior Abby Robertson's second straight kill.
• In the fourth set, 10 ties and six lead changes occurred. Neither team led by more than two points until Pace benefited from four straight attack errors to lead 14-10, but the Purple Knights slowly chipped away and went back in front at 20-19 on a Setter miscue. Pace scored the next four points, leading 23-20 on senior Daniella Abbastante's second straight kill, but Saint Michael's closed the set with a 5-0 run, as Settles posted a pair of kills before Cucura and Welch combined for the clinching block to tie the match.
• Muhammad's ace had her team up 5-1 in the deciding fifth set, and Melendez's second straight kill pushed the lead to 8-3 and a switching of ends. Cucura's kill and block keyed a 4-0 run that deadlocked the teams at 10 before Muhammad and Schulze swapped kills, with an ensuing error giving Saint Michael's a 12-11 edge. Settles and Almeida dropped kills to bring their team to match point at 14-12, but Muhammad and Melendez posted back-to-back kills to again tie the set. A service error put the hosts back in front, and Pace ended the match with an attack error, as the Purple Knights clinched the victory.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S MATCH

• Tuesday at Saint Anselm College, 7 p.m.