ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – After a roller coaster of a match Friday night, the College of Saint Benedict volleyball team was a picture of consistency Saturday afternoon.
After dropping its first set to No. 11 Gustavus, CSB came back and won the next three to upset the 11
th-ranked Gusties 3-1.
The win marks the third straight for Saint Benedict, which is undefeated at home so far this season. It also pushed CSB's record to 15-8 overall and 7-2 in the MIAC. With two games left in the regular season, Saint Benedict is tied for second with Augsburg. St. Thomas leads the league with an 8-1 record and was the first team to clinch a spot in the league's postseason tournament Saturday.
The Gusties (21-5, 6-3) took a slim lead midway through the first set and held on for a 25-17 win. The two teams were back and forth in set two until a pair of kills from
Liz Schultz sparked a short run to put CSB up 19-13. Gustavus clawed back within one at 20-19, but a kill from
Madison Weiss and a block from
Hunter Weiss and
Madison Weiss made it 23-19, and a
Lauren Mathews kill ended the set 25-21 in CSB's favor.
The Gusties jumped to a 6-1 lead in set three, and pushed that lead to 9-3, but Schultz, Mathews and
Briana Schmiesing all had kills to help tie the set at 11-11. The Gusties later went up 19-16, but
Hunter Weiss got a kills and
Bridget McDonald had a service aces to make it 19-18, and a block by
Megan Pekarek and
Madison Weiss tie the set at 22-22. From there it was all CSB, which won 25-22.
Pekarek and Mathews had a pair of blocks early in the fourth and final set to help CSB pull away for an 8-3 lead early, and Saint Benedict never backed down. The Gusties got within three, but two more blocks by Pekarek and Mathews helped make it 20-14 and CSB wrapped up the match with a 25-18 win.
Schultz and
Hunter Weiss each finished with 11 kills to lead CSB, which hit .250 as a team. Schultz hit .455 with just one attack error. Schmiesing had nine kills and Mathews finished with seven block assists. Pekarek had 39 assists, 13 digs and six block assists, and
Haley LaValle had 29 digs.
Kate Holtan led all hitters with 20 kills for the Gusties, who hit .171. Hanna Albers added 16 kills and Lauren Hanson finished with 14. Nora Holtan had 51 assists and Brittany Luethmers finished with 18 digs.
CSB wraps up the regular season with a pair of MIAC matches this week. The team travels to Macalester Wednesday, Oct. 25, then returns home for the regular-season finale Saturday, Oct. 28, against Concordia.
