RIVER FALLS, Wis. – The College of Saint Benedict volleyball team pushed its current winning streak to six matches Friday night with a pair of sweeps on the first day of the Falcon Invite, hosted by UW-River Falls.
Saint Benedict was efficient in its first match of the day, winning 3-0 in three quick sets, and followed that up with a sweep of Hamline in a nonconference matchup. Saint Benedict is now 9-1 overall with two more matches left to play in River Falls.
In the first match of the day, CSB hit .396 as a team and had three hitters with a .600 or better hitting percentage against the Yellow Jackets.
Emily Marso hit .600,
Madison Weiss hit .667 with 12 kills and
Hunter Weiss hit an incredible .850 with 17 kills and no errors on 20 attempts. CSB beat Superior 25-12, 25-9 and 25-14. Madison added 12 kills,
Katie Koch had 32 assists, and
Haley LaValle led the defense with 12 digs. CSB had 45 kills to UWS' 23, and 43 digs to the Yellow Jackets' 25.
The Pipers kept things closer, but CSB came away with set wins of 25-19, 25-19 and 25-20. Hamline was within two at 19-17 late in the first set, but kills from
Gabby Heying, Madison and Koch and a pair of bad sets by the Pipers lifted CSB to the win. In set two the Pipers led 11-8, but CSB came back to take the lead thanks to two Piper attack errors and kills from Hunter, Madison and Heying. Hamline was within 21-19, but CSB rattled off the final four points of the set to win.
CSB led big early in set three, including 7-3, and maintained that lead until late when the Pipers got within 21-18. It wasn't enough, however, and a block from
Morgan Holthaus and Madison and kills from Holthaus and Hunter ended the set and the match.
Both Hunter and Madison finished with 13 kills to lead CSB – and both hit better than .500 for a second straight match – and Holthaus had a career-high eight kills. Koch had 36 assists,
Mary Wenisch had 12 digs, LaValle had 11 and Holthaus added 10.
CSB starts its day at 10 a.m. Saturday with its second match in a week against Northwestern, then plays Northland at 2 p.m. in River Falls.
