ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – They say it's hard to beat a team three times in one season, and Thursday night the College of Saint Benedict volleyball team made it impossible for Augsburg.
 
The Auggies led early in three of the five matches Thursday night in Claire Lynch, but Saint Benedict came back and rallied when it needed it most to come away with a 3-2 win to earn a trip to the MIAC Championship match.
 
CSB, the second seed in the 2017 MIAC Tournament, takes on top-seeded St. Thomas at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, in St. Paul. This marks the first trip to the conference championship since 2013 for CSB, and the team looks to win its first title since 2009.
 
After a close start to the first set, CSB chipped away and used kills from Briana Schmiesing and a service ace from Megan Pekarek to pull away mid-set and hold on for the 25-16 win. Set 2 got off to a slow start for Saint Benedict as the Auggies (19-12) got off to a 7-2 lead before CSB pulled together. CSB got within three twice at 14-11 and 19-16, but the Auggies tied things up with a 25-20 win.
 
The third set was closer to start, and a pair of Auggie attack errors put CSB up 8-6 early before Augsburg rallied to take a 20-15 lead. But Madison Weiss had two kills and Hunter Weiss added one to tie the score 20-20, and Hunter and Madison Weiss each added another kill and kills from Lauren Mathews and Liz Schultz ended the set 25-22 in CSB's favor.
 
Set 4 looked much the same as Set 2 as Augsburg came out hot and took a 7-1 lead. CSB clawed its way back into the set and kills from Schultz and Mathews and an Auggie attack error tied it at 12-12. From there it was back-and-forth until Augsburg went on a 3-0 run to go up 24-22. A kill from Schultz stopped the run and made it 24-23, but a CSB service error ended the set in the Auggies' favor.
 
Saint Benedict came out in control of the fifth and final set and used a kill from Mathews and a big block from Pekarek and Madison Weiss to go up 6-2. Hunter Weiss had a kill, then Schultz had three straight kills to end the set 15-8, and the match 3-2.
 
Schultz finished with a team-high 17 kills, which is one shy of her career-best. Hunter Weiss added 15 kills for CSB – which had 61 total kills – Schmiesing finished with 11 and Madison Weiss had nine. Pekarek finished with 45 assists and 13 digs, and libero Haley LaValle recorded a new career-high with 31 digs. Schultz (21), Bridget McDonald (17) and Allison Roehl (15) also hit double-digit digs for CSB, which had 104 total digs.
 
Corrina Evans led Augsburg with 14 kills and six blocks. Morgan Malley had 41 assists and 23 digs, and Macey Terhell led the team with 26 digs.
 
CSB – which finished the 2017 season undefeated in Claire Lynch – is now 18-8 overall and heads into the championship match on a six-game winning streak.