ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – It all started with the serve for the College of Saint Benedict volleyball team Friday night.
CSB recorded a season-high 12 service aces in a sweep of Carleton College Friday in Claire Lynch Hall – the most in a match since 2017. An aggressive serving plan helped the team pick up its 20
th win of the season as it beat the Knights 25-15, 25-15 and 25-16.
With three matches left in the regular season, Saint Benedict is 6-2 in the MIAC and in a tie for second with Augsburg. The Tommies lead the league at 8-0, Augsburg and CSB are 6-2 and Gustavus and St. Olaf are tied for fourth at 5-3. Carleton is 6-17 overall and 2-6 in the MIAC.
Saint Benedict used several long runs throughout the match to help keep the Knights off kilter. After Carleton went up 3-0 to start the match, CSB rattled off 10 straight points to go up 10-3. That run included a pair of service aces from
Gabby Heying. A service ace from
Bridget McDonald made it 16-6 after another short run for the Bennies, and
Claire Anderson ended set one with a service ace for CSB.
Set two was close to start, but a kill from Heying sparked an 8-1 run for Saint Benedict that included another service ace from Heying and kills from
Madison Weiss,
Hunter Weiss and
Morgan Holthaus. McDonald had two straight service aces to make it 22-14, and a block from Heying and
Emily Marso later ended the set.
Saint Benedict led 6-1 to start the third and final set thanks to kills from the Weiss twins and another Heying service ace, but the Knights came back to tie it at 6-6. Carleton took an 11-8 lead, but Holthaus had a service ace as part of a 10-1 CSB run to make it 18-12. Eying had three straight kills to make it 22-15, and a kill from Holthaus and a solo block from Marso ended the set and the match.
Heying had a career-high six service aces to lead the team and McDonald had three. Madison finished with 11 kills and hit .500 on the night while Hunter had 10 kills. Madison also had four total blocks and Heying chipped in with eight kills.
Katie Koch had 33 assists and nine digs and
Haley LaValle led the defense with 19 digs. CSB hit .253 as a team while the Knights hit .033.
Abby Loe led Carleton with nine kills. Inger Shelton had 23 assists and Celeste Chen had six digs. The Knights had 28 digs while CSB finished with 42.
CSB is back at home for a second straight match Saturday, Oct. 26, when it hosts Gustavus at 3 p.m. The Gusties dropped to 5-3 after losing 3-1 to Concordia Friday night in Moorhead.
