ST. PETER, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict volleyball team and Gustavus faced off in a battle of the top teams in the MIAC Saturday afternoon in St. Peter. CSB hung with the 10
th-ranked team in the country throughout the match, but at the end of the day, the Gusties came away the lone undefeated MIAC team.
Saint Benedict won the first set, but Gustavus came back to defeat CSB 3-1 Saturday afternoon. That marks the first MIAC loss of the season for Saint Benedict, and just the team's sixth of the season. CSB is now 21-6 overall and 8-1 and in second in the MIAC. Gustavus is 23-2 overall and 9-0 in the MIAC.
CSB won the first set 25-20 Saturday afternoon, but the Gusties came back to win the next three 25-7, 25-17 and 25-23. Saint Benedict led 12-7 early in the first set thanks to kills from
Lauren Mathews,
Liz Schultz and
Madison Weiss, and later pushed that lead to 17-11 thanks to a service ace from
Haley LaValle. The Gusties made a run to get within 23-20, but Weiss had a kill and Schultz a service ace to end the set and take a 1-0 lead.
The second set was all the Gusties. CSB had just six kills and hit .029 to Gustavus' 14 kills and .419 hitting percentage. Saint Benedict stayed closer in the third set, but Gustavus stayed hot. The Gusties led 17-9 midway through the set, but a pair of kills from
Hunter Weiss and a solo block by
Lauren Mathews got CSB within four, 19-15 before Gustavus sealed the win.
Gustavus took a slim lead in the fourth set, but kills from Madison and
Hunter Weiss and a service ace from Schultz put CSB up 10-8. The score was tied at 10, 11, 12 and 13 before the Gusties took another slim lead, but CSB wasn't done yet. Mathews and
Madison Weiss had kills to make it 19-17, and kills from both Weiss twins made it 22-21. A kill from Hunter made it 24-23, but the Gusties got one last kill to seal the win.
Madison Weiss finished with a team-high 13 kills for CSB, which hit .170 to Gustavus' .263. Gustavus had 63 kills while CSB had 42.
Hunter Weiss added 10 kills and Mathews finished with nine.
Katie Koch had 37 assists and 14 digs, LaValle had 20 digs and Schultz finished with 13 digs.
Kate Holtan led all hitters with 17 kills for Gustavus. Nora Holtan had 47 assists and Brittany Luethmers had 23 digs.
CSB has one more home match left in the regular season. The team hosts Macalester Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m. in Claire Lynch before hitting the road to take on Concordia Saturday to end the regular season.
