ST. JOSEPH, Minn. -- Coming into her team's MIAC quarterfinal matchup against Augsburg Tuesday night, College of Saint Benedict first-year middle blocker
Keira McManus liked the Bennies' chances.
After all, third-seeded CSB beat the sixth-seeded Auggies when the two teams met in the regular season on Oct. 22 in Minneapolis.
But even McManus was surprised at the way the Bennies dominated, grabbing the momentum early and never letting go en route to a 3-0 (25-15, 25-13, 25-11) victory at a raucous Claire Lynch Hall.
"I did not think it was going to be like this," said McManus, who led the way with 11 kills on a night when the Bennies posted a season-best hitting percentage (.306) as a team. "We expected them to give us a battle. No one was expecting an easy win. But we came out as the aggressors. We've been working on being intentional in practice and having good discipline. That really showed tonight."
As a result, CSB (19-6) - the defending MIAC playoff champions - advance to face No. 2 seed Gustavus (23-6 and ranked No. 23 in the AVCA DIII Top-25) in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Thursday in St. Peter.
"The discipline, the intensity, the intentionality … we worked hard tonight," Bennies head coach
Nicole Hess said. "Everybody did their job. I'm very proud of our effort."
Add balance to that list of superlatives as well.
In addition to McManus, junior
Kali Jones added seven kills. Senior
McKenna Moehrle and junior
Brooke Andries each finished with six. Sophomore setter
Izzy Torve had 18 set assists while first-year
Ginny Schuler added 11.
"We found our shots," Jones said. "We connected with our setters really well. We seemed to have no trouble finding the court and getting kills."
CSB was also strong at the service line, finishing with 13 ace serves. Jones led in that category with five and Torve was right behind with four. Augsburg, which had 27 service aces in its final two regular season matches against Northwestern (Minnesota) and Saint Mary's, did not record one Tuesday.
"Augsburg is a really good team and they've been playing exceptionally well," Hess said. "They've been serving the ball really well, so we knew tonight would be all about winning the serving-passing game. We did that and then some. We did a great job siding out, and whenever you do that, it's hard for the other team to get momentum."
That was certainly the case Tuesday and now the Bennies are moving on to the semifinals - following the same path they did a year ago when they defeated Augsburg at home in the quarterfinals, then went to St. Peter and knocked off top-seeded Gustavus, 3-0, in the semifinals before beating No. 2 seed St. Catherine, 3-0, on the road in the championship match.
This is a new season, but the Bennies have now won 12 sets in a row since trailing 2-0 in a 3-2 win over Concordia on Nov. 1.
"We've really locked in the last couple of matches," said McManus, the reigning MIAC offensive player of the week who's had double-digit kills in each of her team's four matches (all wins). "It's go time. This is the time of year you want to be playing like this. We want to keep peaking when it counts."
