Menomonie, Wis. – After starting out the tournament with a 3-2 win against the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a sweep of the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Saint Benedict rode their momentum even farther to finish off the tournament as champions, with two more sweeps against the University of Wisconsin-Rivers Falls and St. Olaf College. This extended their already great streak to 15 wins out of their last 16 games including 11 sweeps. The Blazers have now improved their record to 21-4.
In their first game today against Wisconsin-River Falls, the Blazers walked away with three very close wins to complete yet another sweep. Saint Benedict took the first set 27-25. The second set was also a very close match as the Blazers pushed through for the 28-26 win. In the third and final set the Blazers finished with a comfortable lead with a score of 25-20.
Lexi Alm lead the team in hitting with 15 kills and a .483 hitting percentage. Sophomores
Sophie Stangl and Alexa Rinde also added to their team's success with 10 more kills for Stangl and another nine for Rinde.
Victoria Nass racked up 22 digs to lead her team. With 38 assists, five kills and a .571 hitting percentage,
Taya Kockelman also greatly contributed to her team's win.
The Blazers came out strong in their fourth and final game of the tournament with another sweep against St. Olaf College. In the first set, The Oles kept it close until a 19-19 tie. But after that, the Blazers went on a 6-2 run to take the set 25-21. The Oles started out with a 2-0 lead in the second set until the Blazers rallied back with a 10-3 run and kept a solid lead the rest of the game finishing with the 25-16 win. In the third set, St. Olaf took an early 3-1 lead but the Blazers closed the gap and again went on a big 7-to-1 run to take a 19-14 lead. The Oles fought back to tie it up at 19 but it wasn't enough as the Blazers went on to finish the match and tournament with a 25-21 win in their last set.
Lexi Alm led her team again in hitting with 14 kills as Alexa Rinde put up 13 more kills and a hitting percentage of .480.
Sophie Stangl also added another nine kills to her total. Like the game before,
Victoria Nass lead the team in digs with 25 and
Taya Kockelman added 42 assists, five kills and a .300 hitting percentage.
The Blazers have now only lost one game in over a month with 15 wins. They are currently ranked second in the MIAC, just one win behind the University of St. Thomas. CSB is now looking forward to the final five games of the regular season with four MIAC matchups and hope the momentum from the successful month and four wins this weekend can help them finish off the rest of their season strong.
