ST. PAUL, Minn. – After making its first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2012 last season, the College of Saint Benedict volleyball team didn't have to wait all that long to make a return trip.
Saint Benedict came back to beat Northwestern 3-2 Friday in a St. Paul Regional semifinal match to secure its second trip to the Sweet 16 in as many seasons. The last hurdle standing between the Bennies and their first trip to the Elite 8 since 2008 is UW-Stevens Point, which swept St. Thomas – the region's top seed – Friday night in the other semifinal matchup.
Saturday's region championship match starts at 7 p.m. in St. Paul. This marks Stevens Point's first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2014 when the Pointers made it all the way to the Final Four.
CSB (25-5) shook off match point in Set 1 and scored the final four points of the set – including a block from
Emily Marso and
Maurissa Isaacs to end the set – to start the match with a 26-24 win to go up 1-0. CSB quickly found itself in a 2-1 deficit, however, as Northwestern (25-9) came back to win the next two sets 25-19 and 25-15.
The Eagles went on an 8-1 run midway through the second set to take a 22-12 lead, but a kill from
Gabby Heying sparked a 7-0 CSB run that included a
Haley LaValle service ace and two kills and a block from
Madison Weiss. That run got CSB within 22-19, but the Eagles scored the final three points of the set to tie it up 1-1.
Saint Benedict took an early lead in Set 3, and kept things close through 12-12 thanks to a kill from
Morgan Holthaus. From there, however, Northwestern rattled off an 8-1 run to go up 20-13, and then scored five straight points to end the set and take a 2-1 lead over the Bennies.
CSB shook off the loss and came out hot in Set 4, taking a 3-0 lead thanks to three straight Eagle errors, and later a 5-1 lead after a kill from
Hunter Weiss and another Northwestern attack error. Northwestern got back in the match and took a 9-8 lead, then a 12-10 lead, but CSB never let the Eagles out of its sights.
After the Eagles took a 17-15 lead, Marso and Madison got kills to tie the set 17-17, and Heying got a kill and a Northwestern ball handling error made it 19-18. An attack error, a kill from Madison and a block by the Weiss twins made it 22-19, and another block from Hunter and Madison, a kill from Hunter and finally a kill from Marso gave CSB the 25-22 win to send the match to a fifth set.
CSB took a 3-0 lead again, this time thanks to a block from Heying and Madison and a kill from Hunter, and never let its foot off the gas. Isaacs had a kill and Heying had two to make it 9-4, and back-to-back kills from Heying made it 12-7. CSB ended the match with a pair of kills from Hunter to earn a return trip to the Sweet 16.
Hunter just missed her career-high with 22 kills, and she had .447 on the night with a single error in 47 attempts. She also had five block assists. Heying had 13 kills and three block assists, and Madison had 12 kills and 10 block assists, along with two solo blocks. Koch had 50 assists and 18 digs, and LaValle led the defense with 29 digs.
Bridget McDonald finished with 19 digs and
Mary Wenisch added 12.
As a team, CSB hit .206 – including .500 in the fifth set – and the Eagles hit .227. Saint Benedict's net defense once again proved key as the Bennies had 13 team blocks to the Eagles' four.
Jenay Fuglestad and Kendra Hardy both had 19 kills for Northwestern. Sydney Schwitters had 66 assists and Marylyn Schroyer finished with 29 digs.
Saturday's Sweet 16 match marks the first meeting between CSB and Stevens Point this season. Saint Benedict is 6-2 against the Pointers in the team's last eight meetings. UWSP beat CSB 3-1 on Sept. 14, 2018, at the UW-River Falls Tournament, and the Bennies' last win against the Pointers was on Aug. 30, 2013, in St. Joseph. Stevens Point heads into Saturday's match riding a six-game winning streak, including a pair of wins over a ranked UW-Whitewater squad and a win over UW-Eau Claire in the WIAC Semifinals. April Gehl leads the team with 645 kills and Maddie Lawson has 129 blocks.
