[slidepress gallery = ‘110914_volleyball’]

The No.7-ranked St. Thomas volleyball team beat Gustavus 3-0 Wednesday night in its home opener.

The Tommies started the sweep with a 25-14 victory against the Gusties. The second set started with the Tommies scoring 10 unanswered points on their way to a 25-11 victory. St. Thomas won convincingly again in the third set 25-16.

St. Thomas had a total of nine team blocks, 37 assists and 38 kills in the three sets. The Gusties, however, managed a total of one team block in the game, 20 assists and 25 kills.

Coach Thanh Pham feels confident in his team in the region and on the national scale.

“I am very proud of our girls,” Pham said. “They worked extremely hard; and Gustavus is a way better team than what we saw tonight, but I think we just kept the pressure on them. It was so fun to watch our girls execute at such a high level.

Freshman Jill Greenfield of the Tommies feels the team did a good job of playing steady and worrying about their side and not the Gusties’.

“We know we have to take it one game at a time, but we’re looking big picture,” Greenfield said. “We are looking to go all the way, it should be fun.”

St. Thomas will face three other nationally ranked top 25 squads this weekend when the Tommies travel to San Antonio for Trinity University’s tournament.

Patrick Roche can be reached at roch6667@stthomas.edu.