St. Joseph, Minn. – The Saint Benedict volleyball team has now started their season with an impressive 11 consecutive wins. The Blazers (11-0) took their 10th sweep of the season tonight (Sept. 14), taking down the St. Scholastica Saints (3-6) for the second time in eight days.
The Blazers started the match with a 25-17 win in the first set, and then powered through the second set to take the 25-14 win. In the third and final set, the Saints kept a close game, but it wasn't enough to take the win as the Blazers walked away with the 25-22 set, and match win.
Lexi Rinde (Minnetonka, Minn.), who had 12 kills, and
Lexi Alm (Forest Lake, Minn.), who added 11 more, led the offensive charge for the Blazers, who walked into this game ranked No. 15 in the nation. Rinde finished off the win with a powerful kill from the left side that went off the blocker and high into the stands as the Blazers' held off any idea of a Saint comeback.
Both are already at the 100-kill mark on the season, which includes a team-leading 102 from Alm. With that added to her 1,002 to open the season, Alm now has 1,104 in her career to move into 10th place all-time at CSB, while sitting just one kill out of ninth.
Sophie Stangl (Bufallo, Minn.) had a hitting percentage of .533 and eight kills, while
Mary Franz (Broomfield, Colo.) also had a .538 hitting percentage and seven kills. Defensively,
Victoria Nass (Faribault, Minn.) totaled 15 digs and Alm added another 12. The Blazers as a team totaled 57 kills, which is their highest mark this season, also finishing with a team hitting percentage of .346 while holding the Saints to just .198.
In the first set, the Blazers went down early by a score of 7-3. Soon after, they responded with an 8-to-0 run to take the 12-8 lead. From here the Blazers continued to widen the gap and eventually take the 25-17 win. In the second set, the two teams battled even early, but with an 11-9 lead the Blazers took an 8-to-0 run, which included two of
Taylor Haag's (Omaha, Neb.) four service aces. The Blazers went on to finish off the Saints by a score of 25-14. The Saints took an early 6-2 lead in the third set and kept the lead until the Blazers tied it up at 10-10. The set stayed close until both teams were tied again at 16-16, where the Blazer's 4-to-1 run gave them the small edge they needed to finish off the Saints by a score of 25-22.
The Blazers hit the road on Wednesday (Sept. 18) to face Augsburg in Minneapolis at 7 p.m., starting a five-game MIAC run, where they finish with a home game against No. 3 St. Thomas.
