ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – After falling to St. Olaf in the MIAC Semifinals on Nov. 7, the College of Saint Benedict volleyball team got a fresh start to the season when it found out it earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
After a disappointing end to the MIAC Tournament, the team took full advantage of its new life late in the 2019 season.
Saint Benedict went 3-0 in the St. Paul Regional Tournament to advance to the Elite 8 for the first time in more than a decade. Along the way, the team won a pair of five-set thrillers, including a come-from-behind win against Northwestern in the region semifinals and a back-and-forth match with UW-Stevens Point in the championship. For their performance over the weekend and for continuing its impressive season, volleyball is this week’s CSB Team of the Week.
After dominating at the net on both offense and defense all season, CSB continued that trend throughout the region tournament. Saint Benedict led the 64-team field in five different categories last week, including team digs (276), team kills (184) and total blocks (39). CSB also led all 64 teams in total wins and total attacks (556). As well as recording 13 total blocks in all three matches, the team hit .223 – good for 15
th in the 64-team field.
Thirty of the team’s 39 blocks came from junior Madison Weiss, who has led Division III in total blocks all season. She went over the 500-block mark for her career in the region championship match after recording nine block assists and one solo block. She and Hunter Weiss made up 107 of the team’s total kills, while Gabby Heying added 32 and Emily Marso finished with 20.
Senior libero Haley LaValle finished fourth out of all the region participants with 68 total digs, and setter Katie Koch finished with 64 – including a career-high 30 digs in the region championship match against the Pointers. Koch led all setters with 152 assists last week to help keep CSB’s offense rolling. Thanks to Koch’s on-point sets, as a team Saint Benedict recorded 63 kills against both Northwestern and Stevens Point – the fourth and fifth time this season the team has recorded 60 or more kills in a match.
CSB looks to continue to lead the field this week as it is one of eight teams left in action in all of Division III. The team gets to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Tuesday night, takes its practice Wednesday afternoon and competes in one of four national quarterfinal matches at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, against Johns Hopkins.
