History repeated itself on Oct. 3 as the girls’ volleyball team played the Episcopal Knights, going to five sets for the second year in a row.

“It’s going to be a really close matchup. We’ve been scouting them and we know what they look like. Last year we went to five sets,” said junior spiker Sienna Zerr before the game started.

The game placed Episcopal and SJS in their slots for the upcoming SPC tournament, which will take place in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in November. Before the game, the Mavericks tossed miniature volleyballs into the crowd to start on a positive note. At 6:45 pm, the game began with an Episcopal service. Senior Kennadie Jake-Turner and junior Abbey Hawes played consistently as outside hitters, each scoring two points to tie the game at twelve points. Eight points later, the scoreboard read 18-14 in favor of the Mavs, leading to a Knights time-out. The Mavericks maintained their lead throughout the set with Jake-Turner executing a spike from the back row to earn the Mavericks’ 21st point. The first set concluded with the Mavericks in the lead 26-24.

SJS began with the serve in the second set. The Mavs called for a time out at 9-18, in favor of Episcopal. The Knights maintained their lead and ended the set at 14-25.

Within the third set, Zerr consecutively served for five points and sophomore blocker Celia Adams scored the 15th and 16th points for the Mavericks by spiking the ball into unoccupied zones on the Knights’ side of court. The third set concluded with another Maverick win, bringing the game to 2-1 in favor of SJS.

SJS started the fourth set with the service, keeping a neck-to-neck game until a tie at 10-10. The game continued to be a catch-up match until the Knights pulled ahead with a lead of four after consecutive points, raising the score to 17-21, causing a Maverick time-out. The final score of the fourth set was 18-25, Knights.

Another coin toss began the fifth set, with the Mavs winning and choosing to begin with the service. Like the previous set, the fifth included mostly catch-up with points going back and forth across the court with each serve. Eventually, the Knights reached a four point lead at 7-11, causing a St. John’s time out. The fifth set, and the game, ended with a Mavericks loss of 8-15.