St. Joseph, Minn. – The No. 18 ranked Saint Benedict volleyball team fell in straight sets tonight (Sept. 5) as visiting Northwestern spoiled the Blazers' home opener.

The Blazers started slow, dropping the first set for the first time all year, before losing their first home opener since 2003.  The Blazers fell to 4-1 with the 3-0 loss, while the Eagles' win pulls them up to a 4-1 record.

St. Benedict had a rough night at the net with an attacking percentage of .082 and 24 errors. Alexa Rinde was the only player to finish with double digit kills, tallying 13 in her 35 attempts. Callie Neumann was next with seven kills on the night, as the Blazers finished with a season low 38.

"I thought Northwestern did a really nice job of defending us" head coach Nicole Hess said after the game. "They had a really good block - we struggled with that a little bit - and their Libero played amazing defense. There's definitely a lot of things we need to work on, we knew that. But were excited to get back to work tomorrow."

The Blazers kept it close the whole night, falling 25-22 in the first set, and 25-23 in both the second and third sets. After opening the season with four straight wins, tonight marks their first sweep since a loss is MIAC Tournament last year. Although Northwestern was in the lead for much of the night, all three games stayed close the entire way through, with 10 total lead changes and 20 ties scores.

Taya Kockelman finished with 24 assists on the night, adding six kills and a .455 attacking percentage.  In the back row, Victoria Nass had a busy day posting her second best day of the season with a game-high 26 digs. Lexi Alm added 14 digs, hitting double figures for the fifth time this season.

The Blazers go on to play a doubleheader this Friday (Sept. 7) at the Augsburg Invitational, starting off against St. Scholastica at 4:00 p.m. before finishing with a rematch against Northwestern at 8:00 p.m. When they square off again, the Blazers will be looking to end a three-match losing streak to the Eagles.

"I think we just got to get back to the basics and the fundamentals," Hess said about the upcoming week. "We had a good weekend last weekend, and build off of that and keep getting better."