ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – One night after recording its best team hitting percentage of the season, the College of Saint Benedict volleyball team one-upped itself Saturday night.
After hitting a season-best .286 Friday against Saint Mary's, the Bennies hit an impressive .379 Saturday night in a 3-0 sweep of Carleton – the team's second straight win and second straight sweep. The win bumps Saint Benedict into a tie for sixth place in the MIAC with the Cardinals with just four games remaining in the regular season. CSB is 5-11 overall and 3-4 in the MIAC.
The match was all CSB as the Bennies beat the Knights (6-15, 1-6) 25-16, 25-19 and 25-14. Saint Benedict held Carleton to a .125 hitting percentage and forced the Knights into 15 hitting errors while committing just nine errors of its own.
Saturday's match was a match of long runs for the Bennies, who controlled the pace of play throughout. A 9-1 run in the first set put CSB up 15-7, and after some back-and-forth another 5-1 run made it 23-13. The Knights scored three straight points, but a Carleton service error and hitting error ended the set in CSB's favor.
Carleton took a 7-4 lead in the second set, but the Bennies responded with another 9-1 run to go up 13-8.
Gabby Heying had three kills as part of the run and
Audrey Spolidoro and
Grace Holm had a big block. The Knights stayed close, and tied it up at 18-18, but CSB scored seven of the last eight points to pull away for the win.
Audrey Spolidoro had back-to-back kills and Holm added a pair of kills in the run.
The final set was all Saint Benedict, which led 11-2 early and then 15-4. The Knights put together a few short runs, but a kill from
Sophie Kobienia ended the set and the match.
Olivia Thompson hit an impressive .550 with 11 kills and no errors on 20 attempts to pace CSB, which had 48 kills to Carleton's 27. Heying added nine kills and Holm finished with eight. Spolidoro had 33 assists and
Mary Wenisch finished with 18 digs. The Bennies had eight total blocks, including two each from
Madelyn Gregory and Spolidoro.
Jancyn Appel led Carleton with 11 kills, Inger Shelton had 23 assists and Kailey Smith and Grace Perret each had 10 digs.
The Bennies are on the road for a pair of matches against some of the top MIAC teams next weekend. The team plays St. Olaf Friday, Oct. 22 in Northfield, and league-leading Gustavus Saturday, Oct. 23, in St. Peter.
