MIAC Tournament Site
ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict volleyball team got off to a slower start than it would have liked Saturday afternoon, but the end result was all that mattered for the team.
CSB beat Concordia 3-1 to finish second in the MIAC standings and secure the No. 2 seed in the league's postseason tournament.
The runner-up conference finish marks the fifth top-three finish in the last six seasons, but the team's best finish since it took second in head coach
Nicole Hess' third season in 2012. CSB wraps up the regular season 17-8 overall and 9-2 in the MIAC.
The No. 2 seed means Saint Benedict gets a bye in Tuesday's first round of action, and hosts a semifinal match at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2. CSB takes on the winner of the No. 3/6match, which features No. 6 Augsburg at No. 3 Gustavus.
After a back-and-forth start to Saturday's first set, Concordia went on a 5-0 run to go up 17-12.
Lauren Mathews and
Madison Weiss each had a kill, and later
Hunter Weiss and
Madison Weiss tallied kills to make it 22-19, but the Cobbers (7-15, 4-7) pulled away for the 25-22 win.
Megan Pekarek and the Weiss twins all had kills to help CSB jump to a 5-2 lead in the second set, and a 6-0 run a short time later put CSB up 12-4. The Cobbers went on a run of their own to get within 16-11, but
Madison Weiss and
Liz Schultz had kills and Mathews and
Hunter Weiss came up with a big block to pull away and help CSB to the 25-18 win.
The third set was back-and-forth again, but kills from Mathews and Pekarek and three straight Concordia errors made it 21-14 and CSB won 25-17.
Briana Schmiesing scored eight straight points early in the fourth set and used three straight Cobber attack errors and kills from Schultz and
Madison Weiss to take an 8-2 lead. Concordia got within 15-14, but the Weiss twins each had a kill and Mathews added a kill to get CSB back on track for the 25-18 win.
Hunter Weiss finished with 16 kills for CSB, which hit .273 as a team.
Madison Weiss added 14 kills and Mathews and Schultz both added 10. Pekarek finished with 46 assists and is now just 75 assists away from the 3,000-assist milestone.
Haley LaValle led the defense with 27 digs, Pekarek had 14 and Schultz finished with 13. Pekarek just missed a triple-double as she also had nine kills.
Haley Cuppett led Concordia with 17 kills and Jill Klaphake had 23 assists. Stephanie Baker led the Cobber defense with 10 digs.
