ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – Wins against the University of St. Thomas have been hard to come by for the College of Saint Benedict volleyball team for the past decade, but the team's seniors now have a trio of wins over the rival Tommies under their belts.
Wednesday night, Saint Benedict beat St. Thomas 3-1, marking the team's first win over the Tommies in Claire Lynch since 2004. It also marks just the fifth win against UST since 2000 – but three of those five wins have come in the last four seasons. The win also marks the first time Saint Benedict has won back-to-back matches against the Tommies since at least the 2000 season, as the last time the two teams met, CSB upset UST 3-2 on the Tommies' home court for the 2017 MIAC Tournament championship.
The win marks the 10
th of the season for Saint Benedict, which is 10-4 overall and 2-0 in the MIAC. St. Thomas is now 8-5 overall and 1-1 in the conference.
All four sets could have gone either team's way Wednesday night, but CSB was able to finish on points and hold on for the win. Saint Benedict won the match 20-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-20. In the first set, the Tommies led 14-7 before a pair of kills from
Liz Schultz and two from
Hunter Weiss, followed by a trio of kills from
Madison Weiss put CSB up 17-15. Another kill from Hunter made it 19-18, but the Tommies rattled off six straight points, and after a kill from
Claire Westby, used one final kill to take a 1-0 lead.
Set two was back and forth, and UST led 13-9, but Hunter had five kills and
Lauren Mathews added three as part of an 11-0 Saint Benedict run to make it 22-15. The Tommies came back to make it 23-21, but a solo block by Mathews and a service aces from
Allison Roehl gave CSB the win and tied the match at 1-1.
CSB held a slim lead throughout much of set three, but the Tommies tied things up at 23-23 thanks to a big kill. Mathews put Saint Benedict up 24-23, and a service ace – this one from
Bridget McDonald – gave CSB the win.
It was the Tommies with an early set four lead, but kills from Westby and Mathews and a block from Mathews and
Katie Koch put CSB up 18-15. Two straight attack errors a short time later gave CSB a 24-18 lead, and a big kill from
Hunter Weiss gave CSB the match and the big MIAC win.
Mathews led the team with 16 kills and seven total blocks,
Hunter Weiss added 15 kills and five total blocks and Schultz finished with 10 kills and four blocks. Koch tied her career high with 48 assists, and
Haley LaValle led the defense with 26 digs. Schultz added 15 and Koch finished with 12.
Julia Spacek led the Tommies with 19 kills, Katharine Mallak had 45 assists and Ellie Meyer had 22 digs.
CSB is on the road for a trio of matches Friday and Saturday, Sept. 21-22. Saint Benedict takes on Hamline Friday in St. Paul, and plays Loras and Luther Saturday in Decorah, Iowa.
