MIAC Championships Home PageST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict volleyball team took a 3-2 win over Carleton Tuesday in the first round of the MIAC Tournament.
The Blazers, who lost to the Knights in the 2014 and 2015 regular seasons, move on to face No. 2 Bethel Thursday in a MIAC semifinal matchup in Arden Hills.
Leading the way for CSB (18-8) was sophomore setter
Megan Pekarek. The reigning MIAC Setter of the Week totaled 44 assists to push her over 1,000 in her first season at CSB. She has 1,015 assists heading into Thursday.
In the other quarterfinal between Saint Mary's and Concordia, the No. 4 Cardinals swept the No. 5 Cobbers 3-0 and advance to take on No. 1 Gustavus Thursday in St. Peter, Minn.
After falling in the first set by a score of 25-20, the Blazers powered back to take the next two sets by scores of 25-20 and 25-15. The Knights then fired back to take a 25-18 win in the fourth set. The Blazers then came out strong to finish the night with a 15-8 win to send them to the MIAC Semifinals. That match starts at 7 p.m.
In the first set, the two teams battled back and forth for the majority of the set with neither team taking more than a three-point lead. After the fourth tie of the set, the Blazers sat tied with the Knights at a score of 7-7. The Knights then began to take a slight lead with a score of 13-10. From here, the Knights held onto their lead until they sat with a 20-17 lead. From here, the Knights extended their lead until the end of the set where they finished with a 25-20 win.
The Blazers came out strong in the second set and jumped out to an early 5-2 lead. The Knights then came back to tie the set at 5-5. From here, the two teams volleyed points back and forth until the Blazers jumped ahead with an 11-8 lead. After leading by a score of 13-11, the Blazers took a 7-2 run to jump ahead by a score of 18-13. The Blazers continued to hold onto their lead for the rest for the rest of the match, and finished with a 25-20 win in the set.
With the match tied at 1-1, both teams came out firing hard as the Knights quickly took a 3-1 lead. The Blazers responded with a 10-3 run to take an 11-6 lead. The Blazers then continued to extend their lead until they sat with a 16-8 lead. They continued to fight hard through the third set and took a 25-15 win to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
In the fourth set, the two teams started with a tied score of 2-2 before the Blazers pulled ahead with a 6-3 lead. The Knights then came back to tie the set at 8-8. From here, both teams went back and forth forcing ties at 9-9, 10-10 and 11-11. The Knights then started to pull away as they jumped ahead to a 14-11 lead. The two teams continued to battle back and forth with the Knights keeping a slight lead of 18-17. The Knights then went on a 7-1 run to take a 25-18 win and force the fifth set.
Like much of the rest of the match, the fifth set started out very close with both teams volleying points back and forth. The Blazers quickly took a 3-1 lead before the Knights came back to tie the set at 3-3. From here, the Blazers took a 4-0 run to jump ahead by a score of 7-3. The Blazers then continued to widen their lead until they sat with a 10-4 lead. From here, the Blazers powered through to take a 15-8 win to keep their season alive.
Briana Schmiesing led the Blazer offense with 12 kills and finished the night with six blocks. Lauren Matthews also added another 11 kills as
Laura Schmitt finished the night with 10 kills and 17 digs. Schmitt is just three digs away from 1,000 with 997 in her four-year career heading into Thursday.
Mary Franz also finished the night with nine blocks and eight kills, Pekarek totaled 44 assists and
Meghan Koop led the team with 19 digs.
Megan Barta and Pekarek each added 15 digs.
Lucy Stevens had a match-high 28 kills for Carleton, which ends its season 14-10. Camille Benson had 36 assists and Samantha Chao finished with 55 assists.
