University of St. Thomas Athletics
Thursday, November 6
St. Paul, Minn.
7:00 p.m. CT
vs
Denver
Photo by: Abby Bondi
Volleyball hosts Denver and Summit League leading South Dakota State
11/5/2025 1:35:00 PM | Volleyball
Tommies back at Schoenecker Arena for final full home weekend
ST. PAUL, Minn. – St. Thomas volleyball makes a two-match homestand Nov. 6 and 8 as it prepares to face Denver and South Dakota State for the final times in the regular season. The Tommies begin the week Thursday at 7 p.m. against the Pioneers before hosting the Jackrabbits Saturday at 12 p.m. from Schoenecker Arena.
Live Media
Live Stats: vs Denver | vs South Dakota State
Stream/Live Video: Summit League Network
Series History
St. Thomas is coming off its first two wins in the series history, taking a 3-1 win (25-18, 28-26, 22-25, 26-24) at Denver on Oct. 21 to open the 2025 season series. Junior setter Morgan Kealy produced the program's first triple double of the Division I era, totaling 41 assists, 12 digs and 11 kills. It was the Tommies' first win in Denver after hitting .259 from the floor and limiting the Pioneers to .183. Senior opposite hitter Tezra Rudzitis hit .361 for a team-high 17 kills to go along with three blocks while freshman outside hitter Anya Schmidt totaled 15 kills and was one dig shy of a double-double, also adding three blocks. Senior libero Ella Voegele tied Kealy with a team-high 12 digs and led the team with three aces.
St. Thomas and South Dakota State have met nine times since 2021 while SDSU began the 2025 season series with a 3-1 win (15-25, 25-27, 25-15, 23-25) over UST in Brookings, S.D. The Tommies hit .262 with four players reaching double-digit kills, highlighted by Schmidt's 16 and junior outside hitter Ellie Gustafson's 15, as both recorded double-doubles. Kealy nothced her ninth of 13 double-doubles this season with 45 assists and 10 digs. The Jackrabbits hit .324 on the night, the second most given up by the Tommies this season.
Bring Out The Brooms
St. Thomas has earned a straight set win in each of its past three weekends, taking down North Dakota State on Oct. 18 (25-15, 25-20, 25-20) before another sweep Oct. 23 at Omaha (25-18, 25-18, 25-18) and a 3-0 win (25-17, 25-16, 25-18) Nov. 1 at Kansas City. It's the fifth, sixth and seventh sweeps of the season for the Tommies and the first ever in the series against the Bison and the Mavericks, while the Tommies have swept the Roos three times.
Make It Four Offensive
Senior Tezra Rudzitis collected her second Summit League Kwik Star Offensive Peak Performer of the Week honor of the season following a career performance over the weekend. Rudzitis, who won the league's first offensive performer of the week honor of 2025, did it again as she averaged a league-high 4.92 kills per set over a 1-1 week against South Dakota and Kansas City. She hit .434 from the floor and totaled 4.92 points per set, second best in the Summit League over the weekend.
The Tommies have now won the weekly offensive award four times this season, joined by senior Megan Wetter and junior Morgan Kealy, and six times since 2023. It's the first season since joining the Summit League that the program has had four offensive performers of the week, recording four total performers of the week last season (two offensive and two defensive).
Reaching New Highs (Lows)
Following the team's four-match winning streak, St. Thomas moved to an in-season program best RPI ranking of 69 before falling to 82 after a split weekend. The Tommies were ranked 85 during the first RPI rankings of the season on Oct. 5, 2025 before falling four spots after losses to South Dakota (RPI: 81) and South Dakota State (RPI: 25) and now jumping to the second best ranking among all Summit League teams. Denver enters the week 105 in the RPI rankings while South Dakota State leads all Summit League schools with an RPI of 27.
Going Triple-Double
Morgan Kealy recorded the program's first triple-double of the Division I era Oct. 23 at Omaha, putting up 41 assists, 12 digs and a career-high 11 kills. It marked her 38th career double-double, her seventh match of the season with at least 40 assists, and 11 match of 2025 with at least 10 digs. She hit a season-high .579 on 19 attempts, setting up her week total of 15 kills on a .539 hitting percentage with no errors on 28 total attacks. Kealy led the Summit League last week in hitting percentage and assists per set and added three aces at Omaha.
Ace Ace Baby
Freshman Anya Schmidt's hot run at the service line has lifted her to rank fifth nationally in aces per set with 0.63 and sixth in total aces with 50. She has at least one ace in all but five matches this season and tied the Summit League four-set single-match record with 10 aces, shattering her previous DI program single-match record of 7, on Oct. 2 at Oral Roberts. It's also tied for the most aces in any match in NCAA DI this season. Schmidt added 10 kills with the 10 aces, marking the program's first double-double outside of kills/digs during the DI era. Three Tommies previously totaled five service aces between 2022 and 2024 while Schmidt now has four matches with at least five service aces over the past eight matches. Senior Allie Kopp is right behind Schmidt in service aces with 0.44 per set, ranking 41st nationally, as the duo is first and second in the Summit League.
500 Wins with the Purple and Gray
Head Coach Thanh Pham is became the 28th active NCAA Division I head coach to reach 500 career wins, doing so following a 2-0 week Oct. 16 and 18 against North Dakota and North Dakota State. He ranks 10th among active DI head coaches in winning percentage among coaches with at least 500 wins. Pham's first career win came as a 3-1 decision over Puget Sound during his first-ever match with the Purple. He also surpasses 700 career matches coached on Sept. 13, a 3-1 win over Stony Brook to extend the team's winning streak to six. Pham became one of 23 active head coach among all of NCAA with at least 700 matches coached and a .700 winning percentage at one program. Coach Pham is the longest tenured head coach within the Summit League, the next longest tenured being Kansas City's Kristi Posey whose first season was 2011.
Ranking Top 50 Nationally
St. Thomas continued to build on its national-ranking stats through the first 11 matches of Summit League play. The Tommies are fourth in kills per set (14.54), fifth in aces per set (2.22), eighth in assists per set (13.30), 34th in hitting percentage (.261) and 25th in attacks per set (36.90). Within the league, St. Thomas ranks first in points per set (18.31), assists per set, kills per set, hitting percentage and aces per set. Individually, Morgan Kealy moved within up to 28th in the country with 10.18 assists per set while Tezra Rudzitis is 100th nationally hitting .350.
Digging Her Way Up
Senior libero Ella Voegele continues to rack up the digs and is ranked ninth among all active NCAA DI athletes and 37th among active athletes in all divisions for total digs, entering the week with 1,681. In addition, she ranks ninth among all DI athletes in career digs per set with 4.34. She began her career at UNC-Greensboro with 454 digs as a freshman before following up with 432 as a sophomore at St. Thomas and a single-season best 506 as a junior. Her 2023 and 2024 season performances are the best for the program since joining DI in 2021, surpassing Carrie Rutledge's marks in 2021 (310) and 2022 (338). Through 2025, Voegele ranks fifth in digs per set (3.66) and third in the league in both total digs (289).
2K(ealy) Assists
Junior setter Morgan Kealy continues to direct the Tommie offense as she surpassed 2,000 career assists during the sweep over Northwestern and is eight away from 2,500 in her career. She is second in the Summit League with 804 total assists this season (10.18 per set) and is second in active career assists (2,492) among all Summit League setters, trailing only Avery Van Hook from South Dakota (3,072).
Program's New DI Blocking Leader
Megan Wetter became the program's DI-era leader in career blocks during the Bryant Invitational, totaling seven total blocks over three matches with the final two blocks putting her at 201 for her career. She's the second Tommie to surpass the 200-block mark during the DI era, joining Ellie Dammann (2021-23) who finished her career with 200. With 64 total blocks in 2025, Wetter currently has 240 in her career.
Tops in the Summit League
Heading into the week, St. Thomas is the only program in the Summit League to rank among the top three in the conference in each of points per set (1st/18.31), kills per set (1st/14.54), service aces (1st/2.22), hitting percentage (1st/.261), assists per set (1st/13.30) and digs per set (2nd/15.30). On the defensive end, St. Thomas ranks among the top three in opponent assists per set (1st/10.71), kills per set (1st/11.58), and aces per set (3rd/1.30).
All-Around Power
Of the top 12 individuals among the league in kills per set, two programs have multiple athletes on the list. While Omaha has two among the top 12, St. Thomas features four athletes including Tezra Rudzitis (5th/3.34), Anya Schmidt (7th/3.08), Megan Wetter (11th/2.85) and Ellie Gustafson (12th/2.81). Since 2021, St. Thomas has not had three athletes average 2.65 kills per set or better during the same season.
Ready to Dance
With the transition in the rear-view mirror, St. Thomas is beginning its first season as a postseason-tournament-eligible program within NCAA Division I. That includes the Summit League tournament, in which the Tommies were not able to participate over the four-season transition period. Initially a five-year transition period, the NCAA Division I Council voted in January in favor of a reduction to the department's provisional period from five to four years. The NCAA later announced in June that St. Thomas had completed its reclassification process and is fully eligible to compete in postseason play, including the Summit League Tournament hosted Nov. 23-25 in Brookings, S.D.
100 Stuffs
Redshirt sophomore middle blocker Addie Schmotzer took 37 matches to reach 100 career blocks with the Tommies, recording stuff number 100 on her second block of the sweep at Northwestern on Sept. 18. She totaled 82 during her redshirt freshman campaign, while her 21 career solo blocks (13 in 2024) rank tied for second for the program during the DI era, trailing only Megan Wetter with 38. Schmotzer is 23rd in the league with 27 total blocks and 25th with 0.52 blocks per set.
Another First to Start the Summit
The Tommies began the Summit League schedule with three straight wins, the first time going 3-0 to start league play since joining in 2021. St. Thomas pulled off a win during its first ever home Summit League match, a five-set victory over North Dakota on Sept. 30, 2021, but had gone 0-8 during conference-opening weekends until this season. The Purple began this conference schedule with four-set wins over Kansas City, Omaha and Oral Roberts, the program's third straight win over UMKC, the first ever win over UNO and the fourth straight over ORU.
Ellie Gustafson and Morgan Kealy each recorded two double-doubles over the first three league matches. Gustafson most recently posted 12 kills, three behind Tezra Rudzitis with a team-high 15 hitting .480, and 10 digs on Oct. 2 during the win over Oral Roberts. Anya Schmidt set career highs against UNO with 26.0 points, 19 kills and 7 service aces, setting then later breaking the DI program record in aces. Her 19 kills rank fourth by a freshman and tied for eighth overall by a Tommie in a match during the DI era.
Another B1G Win
St. Thomas came away with the program's second win against a Power Four school all-time as it swept Northwestern (25-15, 25-17, 25-20) in Evanston, Ill., to begin the Northwestern Invitational, handing the Wildcats just their second loss of the season. It was the first sweep NU had allowed over a 15-match span. Senior Tezra Rudzitis and freshman Anya Schmidt were named to the All-Tournament Team while senior Megan Wetter totaled 17 kills on a .517 hitting percentage against Northwestern. St. Thomas' first Power Four win came a season ago over Iowa, 3-1 (25-19, 25-23, 24-26, 25-19), at the Panther Invitational in Milwaukee, Wis.
Dominating Non-Conference Play
St. Thomas won seven straight matches following its sweep over the Big Ten's Northwestern (25-15, 25-17, 25-20), marking its longest winning streak since joining Division I in 2021. The Tommies won their second straight tournament title with three all-tournament team selections in both tournaments, including both tournament MVPs in Ellie Gustafson (Molly Howard-Gerwig Memorial Invitational) and Ella Voegele (Bryant Invitational). After going 7-29 through the program's first 13 non-conference tournaments of the DI era, the Tommies have now gone 15-4 through the previous seven tournaments dating back to Sept. 5, 2024. During that span, St. Thomas has gone 15-1 through six of those tournaments with the majority of the losses coming at the Golden Gopher Invitational to start this season.
Season-Opening Double-Digit Kill Streak
Junior outside hitter Ellie Gustafson opened the 2025 campaign with six straight double-digit kill performances, becoming the first Tommie to do so since Taylor Lewis in 2016 (11 straight). The streak, which came to an end to start the Bryant Invitational, was also the longest of the Division I era, surpassing Lauren Galvin's three-match run to begin 2023. Gustafson is second on the team with 2.97 kills per set (98 kills). She posted a season-high 16 kills against Ball State, added two 14-kill outings, and recorded 10 kills in three additional matches to begin the season.
Veteran Leadership
Head Coach Thanh Pham enters his 23rd season leading St. Thomas, the longest-tenured head coach in the Summit League. He coached his 700th match on Sept. 13, a 3-1 win over Stony Brook to close the Bryant Invitational as tournament champions. Pham's culture and patience paid off during the final season of transition as the Tommies put together their most successful Division I campaign. The Purple finished 18-12 overall, becoming just the sixth transitioning program since 2011 to reach at least 18 wins and the first since 2018.
With the exit of 2012 St. Thomas Hall of Fame top assistant coach Joy Tietz, Pham added Minnesota Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Jackie Richter, a Minnesota prep coaching legend, as the next top assistant. Richter most recently served as the head coach at Lakeville North High School where she won the 2017 Minnesota State Championship during four state tournament appearances. She was twice named Minnesota State Coach of the Year (2017, 2022) and was a Minnesota Sports Awards Coach of the Year finalist (2018).
Taking 1 from No. 11
St. Thomas battled No. 11 Minnesota to four sets in a 3-1 loss, marking the program's first-ever set victory against a nationally ranked opponent. Rudzitis tied her career high with 18 kills on .263 hitting, capping a weekend that earned her Golden Gopher Invitational All-Tournament Team honors. Freshman outside Anya Schmidt posted her first career double-double with 12 kills and 12 digs, while junior Ellie Gustafson recorded her third straight double-digit kill match to open the season.
High Preseason Praise
After finishing third in the Summit League standings a season ago, the Tommies were picked to finish third in the 2025 Summit League Preseason Coaches' Poll. It's the highest preseason selection since joining the league in 2021. St. Thomas totaled 48 points behind South Dakota State with 62 points and 6 first-place votes and South Dakota with 57 points and 3 first-place votes. Setter Morgan Kealy and middle blocker Megan Wetter were named the program's Players to Watch.
Loaded on the Upper End
What Tommie Volleyball lacked to start the Division I era has now become a strength of the team: 14 of the team's 21 athletes are upperclassmen. Among the upperclassmen, nine are seniors with seven being a part of the program over each of the past four seasons. Kaitlynn Peterson and Ella Voegele transferred into the program before the 2023 season. Of the nine seniors on the roster, all but one call the state of Minnesota home as the eight are from within 45 miles of the St. Thomas campus.
Summit League Network
All home Tommie Volleyball matches, and all Summit League matches, will be streamed exclusively on the Summit League Network, in partnership with Midco Sports. A subscription-based network, viewers can access all St. Thomas athletics events HERE.
Follow Along
For more information on St. Thomas Volleyball, follow along on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram at @tommievball. Tommie Athletics is now available on TikTok at @TommieSports.
Join Us
To reserve your seat to be a part of the Tommies' 2025 season, click HERE to view ticketing information and purchase options.
-- St. Thomas Athletics --
Live Media
Live Stats: vs Denver | vs South Dakota State
Stream/Live Video: Summit League Network
Series History
St. Thomas is coming off its first two wins in the series history, taking a 3-1 win (25-18, 28-26, 22-25, 26-24) at Denver on Oct. 21 to open the 2025 season series. Junior setter Morgan Kealy produced the program's first triple double of the Division I era, totaling 41 assists, 12 digs and 11 kills. It was the Tommies' first win in Denver after hitting .259 from the floor and limiting the Pioneers to .183. Senior opposite hitter Tezra Rudzitis hit .361 for a team-high 17 kills to go along with three blocks while freshman outside hitter Anya Schmidt totaled 15 kills and was one dig shy of a double-double, also adding three blocks. Senior libero Ella Voegele tied Kealy with a team-high 12 digs and led the team with three aces.
St. Thomas and South Dakota State have met nine times since 2021 while SDSU began the 2025 season series with a 3-1 win (15-25, 25-27, 25-15, 23-25) over UST in Brookings, S.D. The Tommies hit .262 with four players reaching double-digit kills, highlighted by Schmidt's 16 and junior outside hitter Ellie Gustafson's 15, as both recorded double-doubles. Kealy nothced her ninth of 13 double-doubles this season with 45 assists and 10 digs. The Jackrabbits hit .324 on the night, the second most given up by the Tommies this season.
Bring Out The Brooms
St. Thomas has earned a straight set win in each of its past three weekends, taking down North Dakota State on Oct. 18 (25-15, 25-20, 25-20) before another sweep Oct. 23 at Omaha (25-18, 25-18, 25-18) and a 3-0 win (25-17, 25-16, 25-18) Nov. 1 at Kansas City. It's the fifth, sixth and seventh sweeps of the season for the Tommies and the first ever in the series against the Bison and the Mavericks, while the Tommies have swept the Roos three times.
Make It Four Offensive
Senior Tezra Rudzitis collected her second Summit League Kwik Star Offensive Peak Performer of the Week honor of the season following a career performance over the weekend. Rudzitis, who won the league's first offensive performer of the week honor of 2025, did it again as she averaged a league-high 4.92 kills per set over a 1-1 week against South Dakota and Kansas City. She hit .434 from the floor and totaled 4.92 points per set, second best in the Summit League over the weekend.
The Tommies have now won the weekly offensive award four times this season, joined by senior Megan Wetter and junior Morgan Kealy, and six times since 2023. It's the first season since joining the Summit League that the program has had four offensive performers of the week, recording four total performers of the week last season (two offensive and two defensive).
Reaching New Highs (Lows)
Following the team's four-match winning streak, St. Thomas moved to an in-season program best RPI ranking of 69 before falling to 82 after a split weekend. The Tommies were ranked 85 during the first RPI rankings of the season on Oct. 5, 2025 before falling four spots after losses to South Dakota (RPI: 81) and South Dakota State (RPI: 25) and now jumping to the second best ranking among all Summit League teams. Denver enters the week 105 in the RPI rankings while South Dakota State leads all Summit League schools with an RPI of 27.
Going Triple-Double
Morgan Kealy recorded the program's first triple-double of the Division I era Oct. 23 at Omaha, putting up 41 assists, 12 digs and a career-high 11 kills. It marked her 38th career double-double, her seventh match of the season with at least 40 assists, and 11 match of 2025 with at least 10 digs. She hit a season-high .579 on 19 attempts, setting up her week total of 15 kills on a .539 hitting percentage with no errors on 28 total attacks. Kealy led the Summit League last week in hitting percentage and assists per set and added three aces at Omaha.
Ace Ace Baby
Freshman Anya Schmidt's hot run at the service line has lifted her to rank fifth nationally in aces per set with 0.63 and sixth in total aces with 50. She has at least one ace in all but five matches this season and tied the Summit League four-set single-match record with 10 aces, shattering her previous DI program single-match record of 7, on Oct. 2 at Oral Roberts. It's also tied for the most aces in any match in NCAA DI this season. Schmidt added 10 kills with the 10 aces, marking the program's first double-double outside of kills/digs during the DI era. Three Tommies previously totaled five service aces between 2022 and 2024 while Schmidt now has four matches with at least five service aces over the past eight matches. Senior Allie Kopp is right behind Schmidt in service aces with 0.44 per set, ranking 41st nationally, as the duo is first and second in the Summit League.
500 Wins with the Purple and Gray
Head Coach Thanh Pham is became the 28th active NCAA Division I head coach to reach 500 career wins, doing so following a 2-0 week Oct. 16 and 18 against North Dakota and North Dakota State. He ranks 10th among active DI head coaches in winning percentage among coaches with at least 500 wins. Pham's first career win came as a 3-1 decision over Puget Sound during his first-ever match with the Purple. He also surpasses 700 career matches coached on Sept. 13, a 3-1 win over Stony Brook to extend the team's winning streak to six. Pham became one of 23 active head coach among all of NCAA with at least 700 matches coached and a .700 winning percentage at one program. Coach Pham is the longest tenured head coach within the Summit League, the next longest tenured being Kansas City's Kristi Posey whose first season was 2011.
Ranking Top 50 Nationally
St. Thomas continued to build on its national-ranking stats through the first 11 matches of Summit League play. The Tommies are fourth in kills per set (14.54), fifth in aces per set (2.22), eighth in assists per set (13.30), 34th in hitting percentage (.261) and 25th in attacks per set (36.90). Within the league, St. Thomas ranks first in points per set (18.31), assists per set, kills per set, hitting percentage and aces per set. Individually, Morgan Kealy moved within up to 28th in the country with 10.18 assists per set while Tezra Rudzitis is 100th nationally hitting .350.
Digging Her Way Up
Senior libero Ella Voegele continues to rack up the digs and is ranked ninth among all active NCAA DI athletes and 37th among active athletes in all divisions for total digs, entering the week with 1,681. In addition, she ranks ninth among all DI athletes in career digs per set with 4.34. She began her career at UNC-Greensboro with 454 digs as a freshman before following up with 432 as a sophomore at St. Thomas and a single-season best 506 as a junior. Her 2023 and 2024 season performances are the best for the program since joining DI in 2021, surpassing Carrie Rutledge's marks in 2021 (310) and 2022 (338). Through 2025, Voegele ranks fifth in digs per set (3.66) and third in the league in both total digs (289).
2K(ealy) Assists
Junior setter Morgan Kealy continues to direct the Tommie offense as she surpassed 2,000 career assists during the sweep over Northwestern and is eight away from 2,500 in her career. She is second in the Summit League with 804 total assists this season (10.18 per set) and is second in active career assists (2,492) among all Summit League setters, trailing only Avery Van Hook from South Dakota (3,072).
Program's New DI Blocking Leader
Megan Wetter became the program's DI-era leader in career blocks during the Bryant Invitational, totaling seven total blocks over three matches with the final two blocks putting her at 201 for her career. She's the second Tommie to surpass the 200-block mark during the DI era, joining Ellie Dammann (2021-23) who finished her career with 200. With 64 total blocks in 2025, Wetter currently has 240 in her career.
Tops in the Summit League
Heading into the week, St. Thomas is the only program in the Summit League to rank among the top three in the conference in each of points per set (1st/18.31), kills per set (1st/14.54), service aces (1st/2.22), hitting percentage (1st/.261), assists per set (1st/13.30) and digs per set (2nd/15.30). On the defensive end, St. Thomas ranks among the top three in opponent assists per set (1st/10.71), kills per set (1st/11.58), and aces per set (3rd/1.30).
All-Around Power
Of the top 12 individuals among the league in kills per set, two programs have multiple athletes on the list. While Omaha has two among the top 12, St. Thomas features four athletes including Tezra Rudzitis (5th/3.34), Anya Schmidt (7th/3.08), Megan Wetter (11th/2.85) and Ellie Gustafson (12th/2.81). Since 2021, St. Thomas has not had three athletes average 2.65 kills per set or better during the same season.
Ready to Dance
With the transition in the rear-view mirror, St. Thomas is beginning its first season as a postseason-tournament-eligible program within NCAA Division I. That includes the Summit League tournament, in which the Tommies were not able to participate over the four-season transition period. Initially a five-year transition period, the NCAA Division I Council voted in January in favor of a reduction to the department's provisional period from five to four years. The NCAA later announced in June that St. Thomas had completed its reclassification process and is fully eligible to compete in postseason play, including the Summit League Tournament hosted Nov. 23-25 in Brookings, S.D.
100 Stuffs
Redshirt sophomore middle blocker Addie Schmotzer took 37 matches to reach 100 career blocks with the Tommies, recording stuff number 100 on her second block of the sweep at Northwestern on Sept. 18. She totaled 82 during her redshirt freshman campaign, while her 21 career solo blocks (13 in 2024) rank tied for second for the program during the DI era, trailing only Megan Wetter with 38. Schmotzer is 23rd in the league with 27 total blocks and 25th with 0.52 blocks per set.
Another First to Start the Summit
The Tommies began the Summit League schedule with three straight wins, the first time going 3-0 to start league play since joining in 2021. St. Thomas pulled off a win during its first ever home Summit League match, a five-set victory over North Dakota on Sept. 30, 2021, but had gone 0-8 during conference-opening weekends until this season. The Purple began this conference schedule with four-set wins over Kansas City, Omaha and Oral Roberts, the program's third straight win over UMKC, the first ever win over UNO and the fourth straight over ORU.
Ellie Gustafson and Morgan Kealy each recorded two double-doubles over the first three league matches. Gustafson most recently posted 12 kills, three behind Tezra Rudzitis with a team-high 15 hitting .480, and 10 digs on Oct. 2 during the win over Oral Roberts. Anya Schmidt set career highs against UNO with 26.0 points, 19 kills and 7 service aces, setting then later breaking the DI program record in aces. Her 19 kills rank fourth by a freshman and tied for eighth overall by a Tommie in a match during the DI era.
Another B1G Win
St. Thomas came away with the program's second win against a Power Four school all-time as it swept Northwestern (25-15, 25-17, 25-20) in Evanston, Ill., to begin the Northwestern Invitational, handing the Wildcats just their second loss of the season. It was the first sweep NU had allowed over a 15-match span. Senior Tezra Rudzitis and freshman Anya Schmidt were named to the All-Tournament Team while senior Megan Wetter totaled 17 kills on a .517 hitting percentage against Northwestern. St. Thomas' first Power Four win came a season ago over Iowa, 3-1 (25-19, 25-23, 24-26, 25-19), at the Panther Invitational in Milwaukee, Wis.
Dominating Non-Conference Play
St. Thomas won seven straight matches following its sweep over the Big Ten's Northwestern (25-15, 25-17, 25-20), marking its longest winning streak since joining Division I in 2021. The Tommies won their second straight tournament title with three all-tournament team selections in both tournaments, including both tournament MVPs in Ellie Gustafson (Molly Howard-Gerwig Memorial Invitational) and Ella Voegele (Bryant Invitational). After going 7-29 through the program's first 13 non-conference tournaments of the DI era, the Tommies have now gone 15-4 through the previous seven tournaments dating back to Sept. 5, 2024. During that span, St. Thomas has gone 15-1 through six of those tournaments with the majority of the losses coming at the Golden Gopher Invitational to start this season.
Season-Opening Double-Digit Kill Streak
Junior outside hitter Ellie Gustafson opened the 2025 campaign with six straight double-digit kill performances, becoming the first Tommie to do so since Taylor Lewis in 2016 (11 straight). The streak, which came to an end to start the Bryant Invitational, was also the longest of the Division I era, surpassing Lauren Galvin's three-match run to begin 2023. Gustafson is second on the team with 2.97 kills per set (98 kills). She posted a season-high 16 kills against Ball State, added two 14-kill outings, and recorded 10 kills in three additional matches to begin the season.
Veteran Leadership
Head Coach Thanh Pham enters his 23rd season leading St. Thomas, the longest-tenured head coach in the Summit League. He coached his 700th match on Sept. 13, a 3-1 win over Stony Brook to close the Bryant Invitational as tournament champions. Pham's culture and patience paid off during the final season of transition as the Tommies put together their most successful Division I campaign. The Purple finished 18-12 overall, becoming just the sixth transitioning program since 2011 to reach at least 18 wins and the first since 2018.
With the exit of 2012 St. Thomas Hall of Fame top assistant coach Joy Tietz, Pham added Minnesota Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Jackie Richter, a Minnesota prep coaching legend, as the next top assistant. Richter most recently served as the head coach at Lakeville North High School where she won the 2017 Minnesota State Championship during four state tournament appearances. She was twice named Minnesota State Coach of the Year (2017, 2022) and was a Minnesota Sports Awards Coach of the Year finalist (2018).
Taking 1 from No. 11
St. Thomas battled No. 11 Minnesota to four sets in a 3-1 loss, marking the program's first-ever set victory against a nationally ranked opponent. Rudzitis tied her career high with 18 kills on .263 hitting, capping a weekend that earned her Golden Gopher Invitational All-Tournament Team honors. Freshman outside Anya Schmidt posted her first career double-double with 12 kills and 12 digs, while junior Ellie Gustafson recorded her third straight double-digit kill match to open the season.
High Preseason Praise
After finishing third in the Summit League standings a season ago, the Tommies were picked to finish third in the 2025 Summit League Preseason Coaches' Poll. It's the highest preseason selection since joining the league in 2021. St. Thomas totaled 48 points behind South Dakota State with 62 points and 6 first-place votes and South Dakota with 57 points and 3 first-place votes. Setter Morgan Kealy and middle blocker Megan Wetter were named the program's Players to Watch.
Loaded on the Upper End
What Tommie Volleyball lacked to start the Division I era has now become a strength of the team: 14 of the team's 21 athletes are upperclassmen. Among the upperclassmen, nine are seniors with seven being a part of the program over each of the past four seasons. Kaitlynn Peterson and Ella Voegele transferred into the program before the 2023 season. Of the nine seniors on the roster, all but one call the state of Minnesota home as the eight are from within 45 miles of the St. Thomas campus.
Summit League Network
All home Tommie Volleyball matches, and all Summit League matches, will be streamed exclusively on the Summit League Network, in partnership with Midco Sports. A subscription-based network, viewers can access all St. Thomas athletics events HERE.
Follow Along
For more information on St. Thomas Volleyball, follow along on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram at @tommievball. Tommie Athletics is now available on TikTok at @TommieSports.
Join Us
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-- St. Thomas Athletics --
Players Mentioned
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/ Volleyball
OH
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/ VolleyballSt. Thomas Volleyball 2023 Intro Video
Tuesday, September 05
Volleyball
Saturday, November 19
St. Thomas Volleyball 2022 Intro Video
Friday, September 30
Volleyball vs. South Dakota
Saturday, November 06
