St. Paul, Minn. – The Saint Benedict volleyball team opened up the offense tonight (Oct. 3), taking a 3-0 win over host Macalester.
The Blazers posted their best hitting night of the season, finishing with a season-high attack percentage of .436, while knocking down 53 kills on just 101 total attacks. The 53 kills is the fifth best total of the season for the Blazers, and the best in a three-set match.
Lexi Alm (14),
Sophie Stangl (13) and Alexa Rinde (12) all finished with double-digit kills, with all hitting near or above the .400 mark.
The Blazers (16-4, 5-1 MIAC) won by set scores of 25-20, 25-13 and 25-14 while holding the Scots (7-14, 0-5 MIAC) to just a .140 attack percentage for the match. CSB totaled 17 kills in each of the first two sets, before racking up 19 against just one error in the deciding third set. Conversely, the Scots were held to single digit kills in all but one set, while becoming the 14th Blazer opponent to hit under .150 for a match.
The Blazers ran out to a 7-1 lead in the first before the Scots came back to pull even at 16-16. CSB then effectively put the match away with five straight points capped by a block from Rinde and
Kendra Coleman to go up 21-16 on their way to the win.
In the second, the Blazers held a comfortable lead for much of the set, but after a late Macalester timeout, the Scots came back with two straight points to pull within six late at 19-13. A kill from Rinde halted the short Scot rally, however, and started a run of six straight points – coming on four kills, an ace, and a block – as the Blazers put an exclamation point on the second set and carried all the momentum into the third.
The third opened with a 5-1 lead for CSB, with the Blazers mixing in four-point and five-point rallies during the set, before closing with three straight kills from
Briana Traut and Rinde to close out the win.
The win is the fourth straight for the Blazers, and their 10th in their last 11 matches. All four victories in their current winning streak have come by sweep, with CSB currently on a run of 12 consecutive set wins.
They will now enjoy a well-deserved weekend off, before returning to Claire Lynch Hall next Wednesday to host St. Catherine in the Blazers' annual Dig Pink match, in support of Breast Cancer awareness. The Blazers and Wildcats serve it up at 7 p.m., Oct. 10.
