College of Saint Benedict Athletics

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Playing two matches on the opening day of the Transy Invite, hosted by Transylvania University, the College of Saint Benedict managed to split its matches Friday, Sept. 11. The Bennies (4-3) began the day with a four-set loss to Asbury University before responding with a five-set victory over Elmhurst University.  

 

Saint Benedict opened the stacked weekend with a four-set loss to Asbury (2-1), dropping the contest with set scores of 25-21, 25-23, 14-25, 25-14. The Bennies finished with 43 kills on a .182 attack percentage, while the Eagles finished slightly ahead with 47 kills on a .184 clip. AU also notched the lead in blocks (10-4), assists (45-38) and digs (67-66), while CSB narrowly won the aces battle, 12-11.  

 

Seniors Kali Jones (Annandale, Minn./Annandale) and Kate Stadum (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd) led the offense. Jones topped the team with 12 kills, while Stadum tied her career-high with 11 kills, doing so on an efficient .400 clip. Stadum committed just one attack error on 25 swings. Stadum tallied a career-best four aces, tying for the team lead alongside Jones. A trio of Bennies finished third on the team with five kills apiece. Junior Izzy Torve (Loretto, Minn./Orono) and sophomore Ginny Schuler (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) continued to orchestrate the attack, recording 19 and 13 assists, respectively. 

 

Defensively, the trio of Jones, sophomore Brooke Siegle (Norwood Young America, Minn./Waconia) and first-year Kaelyn Wittwer (Delano, Minn./Delano) tied for the team-lead with 10 digs each. Sophomore Karley Dunham (Baxter, Minn./Brainerd) and senior Brooke Andries (Marshall, Minn./Marshall) anchored the net defense. Dunham tallied three blocks, while Andries added a pair of rejections. 

 

The opening set saw the Bennies jump out ahead, 6-3. After AU took the first two points, Torve found Jones and Stadum for back-to-back kills. An attack error gave CSB the lead, and following a sideout, first-year Karlie Wollum (Canby, Minn./Canby) downed a dish from Torve. Senior Libby Burns (Watertown, Minn./Watertown-Mayer) tacked on two aces to push the early edge to three, 6-3. 

 

Trailing 20-17, the Bennies used two eagles miscues to make it a one-point game. Andries and sophomore Sydney Elliott (Saint Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) paired up for a block to keep hopes of taking the set alive, making it 22-20, but Saint Ben's was unable to close the gap any further in the opening set, dropping it 25-21. 

 

Looking for redemption in the second set, three straight points by Saint Benedict brought the Bennies within one early on. Down 10-6, Schuler found Andries for a kill before recording one of her own, and an Elliott kill made it a 10-9 game. Following a sideout, Schuler connected with Elliott again before trading points with the Eagles. Back-to-back AU errors leveled the score at 12 apiece, and kills from Elliott and Stadum pushed the Bennies in front, 14-13.  

 

Facing set point, Saint Ben's staved off Asbury a bit longer, as a kill by Stadum was followed by an Eagles attack error, forcing AU to burn a timeout, 24-23. The break worked in the Eagles favor, as a service error finalized set two, 25-23. 

 

After dropping the first four points of the third, Saint Benedict took control with a five-point run. Stadum downed a dish from Jones, followed by a Dunham-Andries block. After two consecutive Eagles miscues, Dunham put the Bennies in front off a pass from first-year Aubrey Marketon (Rice, Minn./Sauk Rapids-Rice). Making her collegiate debut, it marked the first assist of Marketon's young career. Jones got CSB a quick sideout, downing back-to-back kills. An ensuing attack error gave Saint Ben's an early 8-5 lead.  

 

Ahead by three, Schuler found Andries for a kill, sparking a five-point run. Stadum followed with an ace. Dunham downed a set from Schuler before teaming up with Jones for a block. The rejection put CSB's lead to seven, 18-11, and the Bennies never looked back, locking in set three, 25-14. 

 

Saint Benedict ran out of gas in the fourth set, ultimately dropping it, 25-14.  

 

CSB regrouped in its second match of the day, besting the Bluejays (1-4) in five sets (25-17, 13-25, 25-23, 22-25, 15-13). A balanced match saw Saint Ben's only lead in blocks, 6-4. EU finished with the advantage in kills (62-52), aces (13-10), assists (60-49), and digs (88-72), while hitting .218 in comparison to Saint Benedict's .208 clip. 

 

Leading the offense for the second straight match, Jones and Stadum finished with double-digit kills. Jones tallied a team-leading 18 kills on a .277 clip, while Stadum notched a career-high 12 kills on a .300 attack percentage. Andries finished third on the team in kills, chipping in nine. Her ninth kill of the night came at a time when she was needed most, as she put down a ball sent over early to tie the score at 13 in the fifth set, erasing a late three-point deficit. 

 

Schuler and Torve pieced together the offense, combining for 45 of the team's 49 assists. Schuler led the way with 24, finishing one short of her career-best. Torve finished closely behind with 21. Jones added four more aces to her season total to lead the Bennies from the service line.  

 

On the defensive end, Siegle smashed her career-high with 22 digs to top the team. Jones registered her sixth consecutive double-double performance with 12 digs, while Schuler added a dozen to notch her first double-double of the season. Dunham made her net presence known, finishing with a team-leading four blocks. Elliott added three rejections, the most in her career. 

 

After back-and-forth action began the first set, a kill from Elliott kickstarted a six-point run for the Bennies. Jones followed an attack error with back-to-back aces, and Stadum tipped one over the block for a kill on the ensuing point. Another ace by Jones closed off the run that put the Bennies up five, 11-6. 

 

The Bluejays clawed back to make it a two point game, but an error gave CSB a needed sideout. Going back to the line to serve, Stadum dropped one in for an ace to bring up the media timeout. The stoppage in action did not slow down Saint Ben's, as Siegle came up with a clutch dig, leading to a Jones out-of-system kill off a Dunham set, pushing the score to 16-11. A service error gifted Elmhurst a break, but two straight kills by Andries cued up the final timeout by the Bluejays, 18-12. 

 

The Bennies coasted the rest of the set, taking the final three points on a pair of EU miscues and a Stadum kill to close it out, 25-17.  

 

Following a 25-13 set two in favor of Elmhurst, Saint Ben's responded in the third. All tied at seven, a 6-1 run swung momentum back towards the Bennies bench, beginning with a Wollum kill. Schuler dropped in an ace, and a big block by Dunham and Andries gave the Bennies some energy. An EU attack error followed before the Bluejays could get a sideout. Schuler connected with Dunham to quickly get the ball back, and Jones roped one down for a kill to close out the run, 13-8. 

 

Elmhurst found its way back into the set, making it a two-point gap late, 21-19. Andries and Jones came through with kills to extend the lead, forcing EU to burn a timeout, 23-19. Following the break, Torve dished one to Elliott for a kill to set up set point, 24-19. The Bluejays did not give up, as they took the next four points to make it a one-score game, but a Jones kill snagged set three in favor of CSB, 25-23.  

 

A fifth set was necessary after the Bennies dropped the fourth, 25-22. Saint Ben's jumped out to an early 6-2 lead in the decisive fifth set, using three kills from Jones and a pair of big blocks, bringing EU to use a timeout.  

 

An 8-1 run by the Bluejays looked to have locked in the win, but once again Saint Ben's found its way back in while staring down a 13-10 deficit. Back-to-back attack errors gave the Bennies momentum, and Andries erased the gap with a kill on a ball sent over prematurely to erupt the CSB bench, as Elmhurst burned a timeout. The stoppage did little to slow down Saint Benedict, as Schuler connected with Jones for a kill to push match point. An attack error locked in the win for the Bennies, as they took the final set of the night 15-13.  

 

CSB closes out its weekend with two matches Saturday, Sept. 12. The Bennies will battle No. 5 Berry College at 3 p.m. ET, followed by a date with Transylvania at 5:30 p.m. ET. Both matches can be watched by clicking here, while live stats can be found here.