ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The crowd in Claire Lynch Hall got its moneys worth Friday night in the College of Saint Benedict volleyball team's home opener.
CSB picked up an exciting four-set win over Minnesota-Morris – a big win for regional standings, and the second win over the Cougars in a week for Saint Benedict. After dropping an incredibly tight first set 29-27, CSB (5-1) bounced back to win the next three sets 25-18, 25-12 and 25-19.
A feisty home crowd watched in the first set as the home team took a 12-8 lead, then pushed it to 15-10 off a kill from
Hunter Weiss and two from
Madison Weiss. The Cougars (2-4) mounted a comeback, eventually tying the score at 18. A Morris service error and another Madison kill made it 20-18 CSB, but the Cougars came back again. Saint Benedict made it to match point and led 24-20 after another Madison kill and a Cougar attack error, but Morris tied the game again, this time at 24-24.
CSB had match point at 26-25 and 27-26, but Morris used three straight kills to win the set 29-27.
Saint Benedict wasn't going to let that happen again. In set two,
Hunter Weiss had three straight kills and a Morris attack error made it 6-3 early, and after the Cougars tied the score at 9-9, CSB pushed its lead to 18-13 before pulling away for the win.
Set three was all Saint Benedict as the team led 12-5 and later 17-9 before winning 25-12. CSB got off to a hot start again in set four, taking an 8-2 lead after three straight Morris attach errors and kills from both Hunter and Madison. Kills from
Maurissa Isaacs and
Emily Marson made it 17-11 before the Cougars started to push back. Morris got within 20-18, and then 21-19, but an attack error and then a kill from Madison and two from Hunter ended the set and the match.
Madison ended with 17 kills and nine total blocks to pace Saint Benedict, which had 55 kills to the Cougars' 46. Hunter added 14 kills and seven blocks, and
Gabby Heying chipped in with eight kills.
Katie Koch had 43 assists and
Haley LaValle paced the defense with 26 digs. Koch and
Bridget McDonald both had 16 digs,
Mary Wenisch had 15 and Isaacs finished with 12.
Brenna Tinjum led Morris with 14 kills. Layne Herrmann had 39 assists and 18 digs and Alyssa Ukestad had a game-high 31 digs.
CSB is back at home twice on Saturday in the second and final day of its home tournament. The team takes on Northwestern at noon and Concordia at 2 p.m. in a nonconference match.
