ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict volleyball team headed into Tuesday's nonconference matchup on a six-match winning streak and looking to push that streak to seven, but Minnesota-Morris didn't seem to get the memo.
The Cougars came out hot, scoring the first nine points of the first set, and never backed down as they handed Saint Benedict a 3-1 loss in Claire Lynch Hall. The loss marks just the fifth of the season for CSB, which is now 13-5. Morris bumped its record to 9-8 with the victory. The Cougars won 25-17, 25-23, 21-25, 25-23.
Morris led 9-0 in the first set before a kill by
Hunter Weiss got CSB on the board. Weiss had another kill,
Claire Westby added a kill and
Liz Schultz had a pair of kills, but the Cougars pushed their lead to 20-9 before pulling away for the win.
Katie Koch and
Lauren Mathews each had kills late, and Mathews had a big solo block in one of the final points of the set.
Set two was much closer throughout as CSB used four straight Cougar errors to take an 8-6 lead early, and a kill from Schultz made it 10-7. The Cougars fought back to take a slim lead, and the two teams went back and forth until Morris went up 24-21. Schultz had a kill and
Madison Weiss and Koch got a block to make it 24-23, and a UMM kill gave Morris the 2-0 set lead.
A pair of kills from
Hunter Weiss and a service ace by
Haley LaValle put CSB up 6-3 early in set three, and the team clung to that lead. Weiss had two more kills later to make it 16-12, and a kill from Schultz kept CSB up 19-17 late. The Cougars took a 20-19 lead, but Schultz and
Hunter Weiss each had a kill, and two attack errors and a block from Mathews and
Hunter Weiss gave CSB the win and cut into Morris' lead to make it 2-1.
The two teams traded leads early in the fourth set, with a pair of service aces from Mathews giving CSB a slim lead, then the Cougars going on a four-point run to take a 14-13 lead. Saint Benedict answered that with a four-point run of its own that included a kill from
Hunter Weiss and a block from Hunter and Mathews to make it 17-14 CSB, but Morris went on an 8-1 run to take a 23-19 lead. Mathews, Schultz and
Madison Weiss had kills to make it 23-22, and Schultz had another kill to make it 24-23, but a kill from the Morris setter ended the set and the match.
Hunter Weiss had 13 kills to lead CSB and Schultz added 11. Koch finished with 37 assists and 12 digs, and LaValle led the team with 13 digs.
Three players had double-digits kills for the Cougars, who had 59 kills to CSB's 46, and Morris had 21 total blocks to Saint Benedict's nine.
CSB is back at home and returns to MIAC play Friday, Sept. 28, when it hosts Saint Mary's at 7 p.m.
