Northwestern Box Score |
UW-Oshkosh Box ScoreEAU CLAIRE, Wis. – The Saint Benedict volleyball team finished the first night of the Wis.-Eau Claire Tournament with one win and one loss Friday night. They began the night with a 3-1 win over Northwestern (Minn.) and followed with a close 3-2 loss to Wisconsin-Oshkosh, which is receiving votes in Division III. The Blazers now sit with a record of 14-8 and are ranked No. 22 in the country.
In the first matchup against Northwestern, the Blazers started the night with a 16-25 loss in the first set, but responded with three consecutive set wins by scores of 25-19, 25-20 and 25-23.
Sophie Stangl led the offense with 15 kills, while
Laura Schmitt and
Lexi Rinde added another 13 and 12 kills, respectively.
Taya Kockelman finished the night with 50 set assists and nine kills and
Victoria Nass paced the defense with 22 digs.
The Blazers then fell to Wisc.-Oshkosh in a very close match by a score of 3-2. The Blazers rallied at the end of the first set to take a 26-24 win. In the next set, the Blazers fell short by a score of 23-25, which was followed by another 22-25 loss in the third set. The Blazers came back strong in the next set and took a 28-26 win to force a fifth set. In this set, UW-Oshkosh pushed through for a 15-11 win to take the match. All five sets of the match were within four points and three of them were decided by just two points.
The Blazers played very well offensively in this matchup and had four players break into double digits in kills. Schmitt finished the game with 22 kills and Rinde added another 19. Stangl chipped in with 13 kills and Kockelman added 12 kills and 52 assists.
Victoria Nass led an equally tough defense with 25 digs and Schmitt totaled 24 more. Stangl also added six blocks to her team's success and
Mary Franz finished with five more.
The Blazers move on to face Minnesota Morris Saturday, Oct. 18 at 10 a.m. and will finish the tournament with a match against No. 15 Trinity University (Texas) at 2:30 p.m.
