Notables
-Houser recorded 17 kills, which marks a career high for the senior
-Austvold tallied 41 assists, marking her second time in the 40+ stat line this season
-CSS has now won 46 straight games against Northland, with the last 15 before tonight being 3-0's
-St. Scholastica sits in fifth place, having a game and a half lead over the Vikings
ASHLAND, Wis. (
csssaints.com) – The College of St. Scholastica volleyball team dropped the first set versus the Northland College Wednesday night, but bounced back with three-consecutive set wins to take the match 3-1 and kick off their three-match road trip with a much needed Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) victory.
Northland opened up the first set with a quick 4-1 lead over the Saints, but after four-straight errors committed by the LumberJills the Saints found themselves up 8-6. The lead expanded to four when the scoreboard read 11-7 after an
Emily Bounds (Hill City, Minn./Hill City HS) kill, but that would be the biggest lead the Saints would experience as the momentum started to shift.
CSS found themselves down 16-15 when
Madissen Burns (Watertown, Minn./Watertown-Mayer HS) knocked one through the Northland defense to tie it back up. Each team traded points for the next few volleys until the scoreboard read 20-20. The Saints, who had the biggest lead of the game at four, couldn't close out the set as they fell 25-22 to start off the match.
After the slow start in set one, the Saints turned it around in set two and found themselves up 6-2 early after four
Brooke Schermann (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Totino-Grace HS) kills. They didn't blow the lead this time either, stringing together a 6-0 run to put them ahead 14-5. The teams yet again fell into a trance of trading point-for-point, until finally
Brooke Elvehjem (Mora, Minn./Mora HS) connected for the kill and the 25th point of the set to give the Saints the 25-17 win.
Set three looked disastrous for the Saints, as they fell behind Northland early at a score of 9-4. However, a pair of errors from Northland and an
Espi Austvold (Spicer, Minn./New London-Spicer HS) ace put CSS on top at 11-10 a bit later in the set. St. Scholastica hadn't been recording an enormous amount of kills in the set, but Northland was struggling to play the ball cleanly as they had eight more errors after the 11-10 mark and fell to CSS 25-19.
The teams yet again traded points back-and-forth in the fourth set, with the score tied at 6 after a few errors by Northland and a kill from Burns. Later in the set, the Saints put together a 5-1 run that was capped off by kills from Elvehjem and Schermann to push the score in favor of St. Scholastica at 12-8.
Christaia Houser (Esko, Minn./Homeschool) paced the Saints the rest of the way, recording four kills in the last 13 points to seal the deal and take the set 25-16 and the game 3-1.
St. Scholastica was led offensively by Houser, who recorded a game-high 17 kills in the match. Schermann also eclipsed double figures with 11 kills of her own. Defensively,
Taylor Thompson (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo HS) led the way with 18 digs, while Schermann (17) and
Kelsi Rippberger (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) (14) also contributed. Austvold recorded 41 assists throughout the four sets.
The win puts the Saints back at the .500 mark in conference play as they are now 6-6 in the UMAC and sit alone in fifth place. Northland falls to 3-8 in UMAC play, one game behind Bethany Lutheran.
Up Next
The Saints will now have one day of rest before heading out west to take on the University of Minnesota Morris Cougars on Friday at 5 p.m.
