DULUTH, Minn. – Junior
Haley Langeslag and sophomore
Lexi Wall each reached career milestones for the St. Olaf College volleyball team as the Oles swept the University of Minnesota Morris and the College of St. Scholastica on Saturday afternoon at Reig Gym.
St. Olaf (19-5) started the day with a 25-19, 25-22, 25-21 sweep of Minnesota Morris (16-10), with Langeslag recording the 1,000th dig of her career and Wall picking up her 2,000th assist as an Ole in the win. The Oles extended their winning streak to six matches by completing the day with a 25-21, 25-21, 25-12 sweep of St. Scholastica (8-16).
St. Olaf 3, Minnesota Morris 0 | Box
Langeslag and Wall both reached their milestone in the win over Minnesota Morris. Langeslag needed just five digs to start the day and finished with 15, while Wall was just four assists shy of 2,000 before recording 41 in the sweep of the Cougars.
The Oles hit .329 in the match and were led by 13 kills from sophomore
Summer Reid and 12 from junior
Lauren Rewers. Reid hit .435 on 23 swings, while Rewers posted a .368 attack percentage on 19 attempts. Sophomore
Morgan Marxer added eight kills and first-year
Katelyn Lannom added seven out of the middle.
St. Olaf surged out to a 4-0 lead out of the gate, prompting an early Minnesota Morris timeout. Midway through the set, the Oles used a 6-1 run to open up a 17-8 advantage with four different Oles accounting for kills in the run. The Cougars cut a 19-10 deficit to 19-15 before St. Olaf rattled off four-straight points on its way to claiming the first, 25-19. The Oles hit a match-high .423 in the first set and held the Cougars to a .050 clip.
Minnesota Morris held the lead in the second set until a run of three consecutive points, including two kills by Reid, put St. Olaf on top, 10-9. From there, the largest lead for either team was two points until the Oles won the final four points of the set to grab it, 25-22, and take a two-set lead. After trailing 22-21, a service error, a Reid kill, a block by Reid and Lannom and a Rewers kill completed the late-set surge for the Oles.
St. Olaf broke a 15-15 deadlock in the third with a run of four points in a row, with senior
Alison Curry contributing a kill and two block assists in the 4-0 run. Out of its second of two timeouts in the middle of the set, the Cougars crawled to within two, 19-17, but could get no closer before a Marxer kill ended the match.
St. Olaf 3, St. Scholastica 0 | Box
St. Olaf hit .381, its third-highest mark of the season, in its second match of the day, as Reid and Rewers combined for 24 kills after combining for 25 earlier in the day. Reid had a match-high 14 kills to reach double figures for the 11th time in the last 14 matches, while Rewers added 10 for her 17th double-digit total of the season.
Lannom pitched in with nine kills on 11 errorless swings to hit .818, while Marxer and Curry provided seven kills apiece from the middle. Wall posted 39 assists while Langeslag racked up 26 digs, her second-highest total of the season for the Oles, who limited the Saints to a .188 attack percentage.
After trailing 12-10, St. Olaf took command of the first set with a 6-0 run on the Lannom serve to cause a St. Scholastica timeout. Out of the break, the hosts fought back to tie the set at 19-19, only for a 3-0 run to put the Oles back ahead at another Saints' timeout. With the margin back at one, St. Olaf took the first set, 25-21, by claiming the final three points on kills by Lannom and Reid followed by a Wall ace on set point.
Back-to-back kills by Curry highlighted a 7-2 start to the second set for the Oles. St. Scholastica hung around, however, trailing just 23-21 late in the set, before kills by Marxer and Reid lifted St. Olaf to a two-sets-to-none lead.
After hitting above .360 in each of the first two sets, St. Olaf posted a .423 attack percentage during a comfortable 25-12 set win in the third. Already leading 6-3, Rewers ended a 4-0 run with consecutive aces to give the Oles a 10-3 cushion. Later in the set, Reid had a pair of kills during another 4-0 run that put St. Olaf ahead 16-7 and the Oles led by no fewer than eight the rest of the way.
St. Olaf plays four of its final five regular-season matches at home, beginning with a non-conference matchup with Martin Luther College on Wednesday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Skoglund Center.