The Carroll College volleyball team moved into a tie with Lewis-Clark State for first place in the Frontier Conference standings with an intimidating four-set win over Westminster College at the P.E. Center Thursday night.

As intimidating as a win can be, that is, in pinker-than-Barbie's lipstick jerseys.

The Saints (5-1 conference, 14-5 overall) donned their new duds in support of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and dropped the visiting Griffins 25-17, 24-16, 25-9, 25-8.

LCSC, formerly undefeated in conference, fell in three sets at Rocky Mountain Thursday night. Carroll will host the Warriors on Saturday to break the tie for the top spot.

Senior middle hitter Christina Smetana once again led the Saints offense, opening the first set with a pair of touch-shot kills and closing the decisive fourth with a pair of powerful spikes and a block for three of Carroll's final four points.

Smetana finished with a team-high 19 kills on 29 attempts, while fellow middle hitter and junior Haylee Otteson added 15 kills on 24 attempts.

"Our setters deserve credit for putting the ball in the hands of who's hot," Carroll head coach Moe Boyle said. "We run the triangle and our (middle hitters) were putting that ball away - most of the time with a triple block coming."

The Saints appeared to be in for a long night as the teams went back and forth for much of the first stanza, but the hosts closed it out with an 8-3 run that was highlighted by a pair of kills each from Smetana and Otteson.

Westminster was able to mix up its shots along their much smaller front line, which often featured just one player 6-foot or taller to Carroll's three, in the second set. The Griffins and Saints battled to 12 ties and neither team led by more than four points in the stanza, before a block from Carroll outside hitter Sammy Priddy fell out of bounds to give Westminster the narrow win.

The Saints were once again able to take control of the net in the final two sets, as they funneled more and more shots to the waiting fists of Smetana and Otteson in the middle.

"We kind of turned it up in the last two sets and our middle hitters were getting up and hitting it hard," Carroll setter Caitlin Tocci said. "That always gets us fired up."

One particular shot from Otteson got her team excited in the third, as her hard spike ricocheted off a Griffin dig attempt and sailed off the backboard of a basketball hoop in the P.E. Center's rafters.

Tocci led the Saints with 27 assists, while Katie St. John added 26 helpers.

Talita Kressler led Westminster with 11 kills on 47 attempts.

Though her team literally held a sizable advantage at the net for most of the night, Boyle wasn't ready to just credit her team's height for the impressive performance.

"We used to think (height) mattered and we thought about it a lot," Boyle said. "But we've got Smetana at (5-foot-9) and she's playing as well as anyone at middle hitter."

The Saints were supported by a crowd wearing all shades of pink, including the pink S-A-I-N-T-S letters painted across the bare chests of six male members of the student body.

"I think it meant something for us to wear these jerseys," Tocci said. "I think every person on our team has been touched by cancer in one way or another. It was a nice change to play for somebody other than just ourselves."

The Saints will wear their pink jerseys again next week at the Hannibal-LaGrange Dig Pink Trojan Classic in Columbia, Mo.

The tops will then be given to the highest bidders at the jersey auction that followed Thursday's game. Proceeds will go towards cancer research.

Carroll def. Westminster 25-17, 24-26, 25-9, 25-8

Westminster leaders - Kills 35 (Kresser 11); Assists 35 (Megan Evans 24); Aces 3 (Becky Burke, Tahnie Blymiller, Kelsey Schaufler); Digs 76 (22 Blymiller); Blocks 2 (Kresser).

Carroll leaders - Kills 65 (Smetana 19); Assists 65 (Tocci 27); Aces 5 (St. John 2); Digs 104 (Maureen Frauenholtz 25); Blocks 4 (Smetana 3).