St. Joseph, Minn. – The Saint Benedict volleyball team came out swinging tonight (Aug. 30), winning 3-0 in each of their the first two games at the CSB Labor Day Tournament. It was no easy task with their first two opponents, taking on a pair of defending conference champions in UW-Stevens Point and Northwestern.
The Blazers first faced the Pointers in a very heated match and walked away with a big win against the No. 25 ranked team in the country. The Blazers started out strong with a 25-16 win in the first set, and continued to pull out a close 25-22 victory in the second set. The Blazers then pushed through a great third set to finish the 3-0 sweep, with a 25-17 win against the only other ranked team in the tournament.
In the first set, the Blazers climbed to an early 13-4 lead and kept a significant edge for the remainder of the game. They finished the set with 11 kills and held the Pointers to a .121 hitting percentage. In the second set, UWSP put up a good fight and held the game to a tie at 6-6, 10-10, 16-16 and 22-22 until the Blazers pulled ahead at the very end for the 25-22 win. The Blazers finished the match with 13 kills and held UWSP to a hitting percentage of .139.
The Pointers came out hard again in the beginning of the third set and kept a close score at 14-14 halfway through the game. From there, the Blazers went on an 11-3 run to take the set and match.
Junior
Lexi Rinde led the team in hitting with an amazing .571 hitting percentage, including 13 kills in three sets.
Lexi Alm and
Sophie Stangl also attributed to their teams offense, Alm adding nine kills and Stangl with a .308 hitting percentage.
Taya Kockelman also helped out her team while earning 34 set assists.
The Blazers defense also stayed strong throughout the game, holding the Pointers to an overall hitting percentage of .136.
Victoria Nass was a large part of this putting up 14 digs while
Kelly Davenport added another 13.
The Blazers continued their momentum building in their second game night with a win against the University of Northwestern.
The Blazers started out with a 25-13 win in the first set, where they scored 13 kills and a hitting percentage of .357 while holding the Eagles to just .087. With the momentum on their side, they continued to dominate the second set with 23 kills, a hitting percentage of .500 and a 25-17 win. In the third set, Saint Benedict grabbed another 12 kills with a .435 hitting percentage for the 25-15 win to finish the match.
In the first set, Northwestern kept the score close early with a 6-6 tie. The Blazers began to climb ahead, and after a 12-2 run, put away the Eagles 25-13. The Blazers jumped out to a 5-1 lead and kept a strong lead for the rest of the set. After steadily increasing their lead throughout the set the Blazers finished with a 25-17 win. In the third and final frame, after going down 2-1 early, the Blazers went on 7-to-1 and 10-to-5 runs, and finished with a 25-15 win.
Many different Blazers added to the team's offensive success during the game.
Lexi Alm contributed 14 kills while
Lexi Rinde and
Chelsea Rachel each added another nine.
Sophie Stangl led the team with a hitting percentage of .875 and also added another seven kills.
Taya Kockelman gave her team 39 assists to add to the Blazers' offense and
Chelsea Rachel led the way defensively with eight digs.
The Blazers finished the day with a 2-0 record and currently stand tied at No. 1 in the Tournament with Concordia. Tomorrow, they finish the tournament with games against UW-Eau Claire at 1 p.m. and Northland College at 3 p.m. Both games will be held in the Claire Lynch Hall and are the final two games of the CSB Labor Day Tournament.
