St. Joseph, Minn. – As the Saint Benedict volleyball team starts to close out the year with their last regular season home game tonight (Oct. 24), they use their ever growing momentum to complete another win, this time against Bethel University, 3-1.
The Blazers have now won 35 out of their last 39 sets, and tonight secured a first round bye in the MIAC playoffs as the No. 2 seed. There is also still a chance for a share of the regular season title, as a win on Saturday and a St. Thomas loss will leave the Blazers tied at the top of the final conference standings.
“This win really helps build our momentum because Bethel is a really good team and we were really looking forward to playing them. They've gotten us ready for Concordia,” said sophomore
Sophie Stangl.
Coming into tonight's game, Bethel was ranked No. 6 in the region and CSB was No. 4 in the same rankings. Saint Benedict also came into the night ranked No. 25 in the nation, and in the first set took an early lead of 10-4. They kept a solid lead for the rest of the set and ended up taking the 25-16 win. The second started out close and stayed close for the majority of the set, until the Blazers went on an 8-3 run to take the win 25-19. The third set started out the same, staying close the whole way through until Bethel pulled ahead at the end of a thriller to walk away with a 25-23 win. In the fourth set, the score stayed very close once again with the Blazers finishing it off, this time with a 25-23 win.
Stangl led the attack with 19 kills, which is a new career high, also finishing the night with a .311 attacking percentage.
Lexi Alm also added another 17 kills and 24 digs with Alexa Rinde giving her team 14 kills and a hitting percentage of .290.
Taya Kockelman totaled 50 set assists tonight which is the sixth time in her career she reached the 50 mark and ties the third best night of her career.
Victoria Nass put up another 31 digs to go over 600 on the season, and reach the 30-mark for the fourth time.
The Blazers go on to play their last regular season game against Concordia College in Moorhead on Saturday, Oct. 27, with the first serve at 3 p.m. They'll look for another win to finish off the season on a high note as they look forward to the playoffs.
“It secured us a home game on Thursday,” Nass said of the win. “It just gives us confidence going into the tournament so we'll push and do our best.”
Head Coach
Nicole Hess continues the best season of her career with 25 wins in a season and a new career high with nine MIAC wins. She'll look to make it an even 10 in the conference on Saturday, while also getting to 26 on the season, which will tie the second best mark in the last decade.
