WHITEWATER, Wis. – The College of Saint Benedict volleyball team is no stranger to five-set matches, so it shouldn't have surprised anyone that the Blazers took their first match at the NCAA Tournament went the distance.
 
For the 11^th time this season, Saint Benedict went to five sets Thursday night. The Blazers and Wartburg College fought through five close sets in the first round of the NCAA National Tournament, and the Knights came away with a 3-2 win in Whitewater, Wis.
 
CSB, which marked its fifth straight tournament appearance Thursday and eighth in the past nine seasons, ends its season 18-10 overall. The Blazers earned an at-large berth to the national tournament after making it to the MIAC semifinals and finishing third in the league in the regular season.
 
Saint Benedict started the match with a 25-16 win over the Knights (31-5), who move on to face the winner of the UW-Whitewater/Northwestern winner at 7 p.m. Friday in the second round.
 
The Blazers jumped to a fast start in the second set thanks to three straight Knight attack errors. Wartburg fought back, and the set went point-for-point until the Knights put together a short run to go up 16-12. The Knights pushed their lead to 17-13 before CSB made a run to get within one, and a kill from Briana Schmiesing and a Knight hitting error tied the match at 18.
 
CSB took a 21-19 lead, but the Knights came back to tie the set, and took a 24-23 lead, but a ball handling error on Wartburg tied the set at 24-24. A pair of CSB attack errors gave Wartburg a 26-24 win and tied the match at 1-1.
 
Wartburg came out hot in the third set and took an 8-3 lead before kills from Laura Schmitt, Lauren Mathews and Meghan Koop got the Blazers to within 10-9. Wartburg pushed its lead back to 15-9 and then 21-13, but CSB went on an 11-2 run to take a 24-23 lead off a kill from Mary Franz. Wartburg tied the set at 24-24, but a kill from Mathews gave the Blazers a 26-24 win.
 
The fourth set was just as close as the Blazers took a 13-9 lead but the Knights fought back to tie the score at 14, and neither team led by more than two the rest of the way. A kill from Schmitt put CSB up 22-20, but the Knights came back to take a 23-22 lead. The teams went back and forth until the set was tied at 26, and a kill and CSB attack error forced a fifth and final set.
 
The Blazers used kills from Schmitt, Schmiesing and Koop to grab a 9-4 lead in the fifth set, but Wartburg went on a 5-1 run to tie the set at 10-10, and then used a pair of kills to go up 13-11. A Blazer attack error ended the set 15-12 in favor of Wartburg.
 
Schmitt finished with 17 kills and 21 digs and Mathews and Schmiesing each added 11 kills. Koop had 10 kills and 22 digs and Megan Pekarek finished with 46 assists and 15 digs. The Blazers finished the night with 62 kills.
 
CSB loses two seniors, Schmitt and Mary Franz, to graduation in May, but returns plenty of talent, including Pekarek, who has earned All-MIAC and All-Region honors so far this season.