St. Paul NCAA Regional Website | Live Video | Live Stats | NCAA Tournament Bracket

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – For the fourth consecutive season, the College of Saint Benedict volleyball team earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament this year. The Blazers start their 2014 tournament run Thursday, Nov. 13, against a very familiar opponent.
 
Saint Benedict, which is 21-9, takes on UW-Stevens Point at 5:30 p.m. Thursday on the St. Thomas campus in St. Paul, Minn., in a first-round matchup. The marks the second time this season the two teams have played and the fourth time in the past two years. The Pointers, who are 29-4 and ranked No. 6 in Division III, knocked CSB out of the tournament in the second round in 2013.
 
"I am very excited for another opportunity at Stevens Point," CSB senior setter Taya Kockelman said. "We have grown so much as a team since we saw them last. It will be a very good game because both teams have grown a lot."
 
Tickets for Thursday's game will be sold at the door. Tickets are $7 for adults and $4 for students. MIAC passes will no longer be accepted.
 
The Pointers, who won the WIAC tournament for the second straight year to earn the league's automatic bid to the national tournament, enters Thursday on a 17-match winning streak. Stevens Point hasn't lost since falling to St. Thomas and UW-Oshkosh – which both made the national tournament – in back-to-back games on Sept. 20 and 24.
 
UW-Stevens Point is led by senior setter Alexis Hartman, who earned WIAC Player-of-the-Year honors for the second straight year in 2014 – the first player in league history to win the honor more than once. She also earned All-WIAC honors, and is fourth in Division III in assists per set (11.11). Middle blocker Emma Brunkhorst also earned All-WIAC honors and leads the league in hitting percentage (.322), kills per set (3.66) and blocks per set (1.37). She is third in the nation in blocks per set.
 
The Blazers and Pointers have already played once this season, and UWSP came out on top in a hard-fought 3-2 win over CSB. The Pointers, ranked No. 3 at the time, won the first set 25-16, CSB won the second 25-19, Stevens Point took a 2-1 lead with a 25-20 win in set three, and the Blazers forced a fifth set with a 25-23 win in set four. The Pointers won the deciding set 15-13. Laura Schmitt had 16 kills and 11 digs, Mary Franz had 13 kills, Kockelman finished with 50 assists and Victoria Nass had 34 digs when the two teams met the first time this season.
 
Prior to that early match at the CSB Labor Day Classic, the last time the two teams met was Nov. 15, 2013, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in St. Paul. Stevens Point came out on top in a 3-1 win (25-20, 23-25, 25-23, 25-20) over the Blazers to end CSB's season.
 
"I think it helps that we are familiar with this team," senior middle Bailey Rykken said. "We aren't intimidated, they don't do anything we haven't seen before and we understand how they operate. We know their go-to players, their preferred sets and their weaknesses. Making sure that we are taking advantage of our knowledge of this team will be critical to the outcome."
 
Seven Blazer seniors are looking to add a few more games to their collegiate careers with a victory tonight. The winner moves on to face the winner of the Coe/St. Thomas game at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14. Saint Benedict should be well rested, as the Blazers haven't played since falling to St. Thomas in the MIAC Semifinals on Nov. 6.
 
Blazer senior setter Taya Kockelman is fifth in Division III in assists per set at 11.10, right behind Hartman. As a team, the Blazers lead Division III with 13.18 assists per set and are fourth in the nation with 14.04 kills per set. Schmitt leads the team with 332 kills and Lexi Rinde (281) and Sophie Stangl (254) are right behind. Franz has 90 total blocks and Nass leads the defense with 544 digs.
 
Live stats for all of the regional games at St. Thomas are available here https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/108640996/XLIVE.HTM and live video is available at http://www.msbnsports.net/teams.php?ID=10.