ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict volleyball team's played two very different matches on Friday on the first day of its home tournament.
If the team's 3-1 loss to Valley City State was a marathon, its 3-0 sweep of Simpson to end the day was a sprint. The team's win against the Storm marked its first home win of the year, and pushed its overall record to 4-3 with two games remaining yet this weekend.
In the team's nightcap against Simpson (3-4), Saint Benedict had 14 total blocks and a .348 hitting percentage to help it to a quick victory, winning by scores of 25-11, 25-14 and 25-13. CSB used an 8-0 run to pull ahead 17-8 in the first set and then cruised to the win, and after the Storm went up 8-3 in the second, CSB went on a 7-0 run to go up 11-9, and later used a 9-1 run to take a 22-13 lead before sealing the win. An early run in the third and final set put CSB up 12-3, and the team held on from there.
Madison Weiss had 10 kills, nine block assists and two solo blocks, which is just shy of her career-best 12 block assists.
Lauren Mathews added seven kills and
Katie Koch had 29 assists and a team-high 11 digs.
Haley LaValle and
Bridget McDonald each added 10 digs for CSB, which held the Storm to a -.019 hitting percentage. CSB had just six hitting errors to Simpson's 26.
The first match of the day was much closer all the way through. Valley City State (4-6) won the marathon 26-24, 12-25, 25-22 and 35-33 in a match that took nearly two hours to complete. The Vikings came back from a 16-8 deficit in the first set to get within one at 23-22, but CSB made it game points thanks to a solo block from
Hunter Weiss. VCSU, however, scored four straight points to pull away for the win.
Saint Benedict cruised early in set two, using kills from
Liz Schultz and both Hunter and
Madison Weiss to go up 8-3. Another short run made it 16-5, and CSB pulled way for the win to tie the match at 1-1. CSB used a five-point run that included a pair of service aces from Schultz to go up 10-6 in set three, but the Vikings responded with a run of their own and went up 20-14 before CSB started clawing its way back in. Two kills from
Hunter Weiss tied the match at 22-22, but two kills and a service aces gave Valley City a 2-1 lead.
Both teams had multiple opportunities to win late in the fourth set, but it was the Vikings who eventually prevailed after 10 extra points had been played. A kills from
Claire Westby made it 24-23 at the original game point, but from there the game was tied 10 times before Valley City was able to make its move. Saint Benedict led 27-26 after a pair of VCSU errors, and again at 30-29 after two more errors, then twice more after kills from Mathews, but a trio of Viking kills sealed the set and the match for VCSU.
Hunter Weiss had 16 kills and four block assists,
Madison Weiss had 12 kills and five block assists and Mathews finished with nine kills and five block assists for CSB, which had 53 total kills. Koch finished with 45 assists – which ties her career high – and 14 digs, and LaValle led the team with 23 digs. Schultz (21),
Allison Roehl (11) and McDonald (11) also reached double-digit digs.
CSB is back at home twice more on Day 2 of its home tournament. The team hosts Concordia in a nonconference match at 1 p.m. and wraps up the day with a 5 p.m. game against St. Scholastica. Neutral-site games start at 9 a.m. Saturday in Claire Lynch.
