Box Score Box Score

ST. PAUL – The St. Scholastica volleyball team rallied from a 2-1 deficit to upset Northwestern College this evening in five sets and capture the 2009 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament Championship.

This is the third UMAC Tournament championship for the Saints and the first since the 2006 season. The Eagles had won the tournament championship last year and is the three-time regular season champions.

Northwestern took the first set as it did not trail and pulled away late to win by a score of 25-16. The Eagles also led for the first half of the second set, but the Saints came back to take a 21-17 lead. Northwestern, though, had set point at 25-24, but a #Rebecca Udermann# (Sr.-Rosemount, Minn.) kill kept the set going. With the score 26-26, the Eagles had back-to-back attack errors to give CSS the second set 28-26.

The Eagles jumped out to a big 13-3 lead in the third set and ended up taking it 25-20. The Saints trailed 20-17 in the fourth set, but after two Udermann kills and a pair of attack errors by Northwestern, the Saints tied it at 21-21. With the score still tied 24-24, #Megan Baartman# (Sr.-Andover, Minn.) and #Paige Hardy# (Fr.-Hibbing, Minn.) had kills to keep CSS alive and win the fourth set 26-24.

In the fifth-and-deciding set, the score was tied 10-10 until Udermann had three of the last five points to give St. Scholastica the conference tournament championship by a score 15-10.

There were 29 ties and 11 lead changes in the match. The Saints had a match-best .310 attack percentage in the fifth set.

Rebecca Udermann (Rosemount, Minn./Rosemount HS), playing in her final match, had a career-high 24 kills to lead the Saints. Paige Hardy (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing HS) added 17 kills and Megan Baartman (Andover, Minn./Andover HS) had 12 kills. #Sarah Kurtovich# (Fr.-Andover, Minn.) had 46 set-assists.

The Saints' season will end with a record of 19-13 overall. The 19 wins are the most since the 2006 season. CSS graduates three seniors: Udermann, Baartman, and #Taryn McCue# (Sr.-Side Lake, Minn./Hibbing). CSS returns a lot of young talent for next year as it will be in search of a NCAA Tournament bid.