Interview with Coach Hess | Interview with L Mathews

ST. PAUL, Minn. – At the beginning of the 2017 season, the College of Saint Benedict volleyball team was picked to finish sixth by the league's head coaches in the preseason coach's poll.
 
Saturday night, CSB proved everyone wrong.
 
Saint Benedict, the No. 2 seed in the 2017 MIAC Tournament, upset top-seeded and 17^th-ranked St. Thomas 3-2 on the Tommies' home court to win the conference championship.
 
The MIAC title marks the first since 2009 for the CSB volleyball program, and first for any sport at Saint Benedict since the soccer team won both the regular-season and tournament titles in 2013. It is the eighth MIAC title in CSB volleyball history.
 
The win also marked the first against the Tommies in five tries in conference title matches, and the second win over UST in head coach Nicole Hess' tenure. CSB is now 4-24 against St. Thomas since 2000. The loss was the first home loss of the season for UST (25-6), and pushed Saint Benedict's current winning streak to seven matches.
 
Along with bringing a conference title back to St. Joseph, Saturday's win also secured the MIAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for CSB. This marks the 19^th trip to the national tournament for the volleyball program and first for the team since 2015.
 
The first set Saturday night went to the Tommies, 25-18, and after a close start to the second set, it appeared UST would take a 2-0 lead as it went up 21-15 late. A kill from Lauren Mathews and two from Briana Schmiesing made it 21-19, but St. Thomas appeared to have the match in hand after extended its lead to 24-21. But kills from Madison Weiss and Liz Schultz and a pair of errors on UST gave CSB a 25-24 lead, and Saint Benedict later scored three straight points on three straight UST attack errors and a block by Schultz and Mathews to win the set 28-26.
 
The Tommies took an early lead again in Set 3, but CSB rattled off four straight points to tie it 14-14, and later took an 18-16 lead after a kill from Schmiesing. After the Tommies took another slim lead, CSB appeared to have momentum after a pair of kills from Schultz, but an attack error and a long kill by UST gave the Tommies the set 25-23 and a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
Once again, UST came out hot in Set 4 and took a 5-0 lead before CSB got on the board. UST pushed its lead to 9-2 before three kills from Hunter Weiss got Saint Benedict back in the game, 11-6. A four-point run tied the game at 15-15, and kills from Lauren Mathews and Megan Pekarek made it 22-17 in favor of CSB. The Tommies came back to snag a 23-22 lead, then 24-23, but a service ace by Mathews put CSB back up, and kills from Pekarek and Hunter Weiss pushed CSB to a 27-25 win to force a fifth set.
 
The two teams traded runs to start the final set, and the game was tied 9-9 before a UST attack error and kill by Schmiesing put CSB up 11-9 and forced a Tommie timeout. St. Thomas got within one, 11-10, but never scored again after that as CSB finished the set – and the match – on a four-point run that included a kill from Madison Weiss and a block by Pekarek and Mathews.
 
All five of CSB's starting hitters finished the night with double-digit kills, led by 15 from Schmiesing. Madison Weiss (14), Mathews (13), Hunter Weiss (12) and Schultz (12) also hit double digits for Saint Benedict, which had 72 total kills. Pekarek recorded a season-high 53 assists, which pushed her over the 1,000-assist mark for the season and the 3,000-assist mark for her career. Haley LaValle recorded a new career-high with 33 digs, and Pekarek (19), Schultz (15) and Bridget McDonald (12) also hit double digits.
 
Mathews and Pekarek both earned a spot on the 2017 MIAC All-Tournament Team.
 
Saint Benedict is now 19-8 in 2017 and awaits its postseason fate. The team learns where it is headed for the NCAA Regional Tournament and who it plays at 11:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 6, when the NCAA hosts its Division III Volleyball selection show.