Women's Volleyball | 10/08/2019

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict is off to a historic start to the 2019 season, and Tuesday afternoon, the team was rewarded with a historic national ranking.
 
For the second time in program history and first time since 1993, Saint Benedict cracked the top five in the AVCA Division III Coaches Top 25 Poll. In the sixth poll of 2019, CSB came in ranked at No. 5, up two spots from its previous ranking of No. 7.
 
The top-five ranking comes nearly 26 years to the day since the last time Saint Benedict earned the No. 5 ranking. The last – and only other – time CSB was ranked that highly in Division III was Oct. 5, 1993.
 
CSB's jump into the top five nationally comes after a big conference and regional sweep of then-No. 11 Augsburg Saturday afternoon. The win marked the team's 17^th of the season, and pushed CSB's current win streak to 14 matches. After a pair of MIAC sweeps last week, CSB is 17-1 overall and, along with St. Thomas, one of two 4-0 teams in the conference.
 
The team's 14-match win streak is also historic as it is the longest for the team since 2012, when CSB won 15 straight games heading into the MIAC Tournament championship match. That year, Saint Benedict didn't lose a single game in the month of October. This year, CSB went 14-0 in the month of September, and looks to carry that success into October and beyond.
 
Strong play on both sides of the ball have helped Saint Benedict find success through the midway point of the 2019 season, and have led to some individual rankings in various statistical categories. Twins Madison Weiss and Hunter Weiss are third and fourth, respectively, in the nation in hitting percentage, and as a team CSB is sixth in Division III with a .272 hitting percentage. The duo is also in the top 75 in both kills per set and total kills, and CSB is eighth in the nation in kills per set and top 40 in total kills.
 
Setter Katie Koch fifth in the nation in assists per set and 12^th in total assists, and the team is 11^th in assists per set and top 45 in total assists. On the defensive side of the ball, Madison leads the nation in total blocks and is second in blocks per set, while Hunter is in the top 40 in both categories. As a team, CSB is 13^th with 2.17 blocks per set and in the top 26 in total blocks.
 
Saint Benedict doesn't have a mid-week match this week, but is on the road Friday and Saturday, Oct. 11-12, for a pair of key MIAC matches. The team takes on Saint Mary's Friday in Winona, then heads to Northfield Saturday for a match against St. Olaf, which is one of the top teams receiving votes in the latest AVCA poll. CSB is back at home Wednesday, Oct. 16, against Hamline.