NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College volleyball team began its fall season by posting a pair of victories to open the St. Olaf-Carleton Invitational, downing Martin Luther in three sets and UW-River Falls in four sets on Friday at the Skoglund Center.
In the opener, St. Olaf (2-0) hit .329 as a team, including .381 over the final two sets, and held Martin Luther (0-2) to a -.110 clip to breeze to a 25-11, 25-9, 25-11 victory in the morning. In the evening, the Oles rebounded from dropping a close second set to take down UW-River Falls (1-1) by a 25-21, 23-25, 25-16, 25-19 scoreline.
St. Olaf 3, Martin Luther 0 | Box
In the first match of the day, seven Oles had at least three kills and St. Olaf racked up seven total blocks and seven aces over just three sets in the sweep of Martin Luther. Senior
Megan Grimes tallied a match-high eight kills for the Oles, while junior
Lauren Rewers had six kills on nine errorless swings. Sophomore
Summer Reid and senior
Alison Curry each added five kills.
Junior
Haley Langeslag made a match-high 10 digs, while sophomore
Lexi Wall and first-year
Brynne Gray each handed out 13 assists. Sophomore
Morgan Marxer had four block assists to lead five Oles with multiple blocks in the match.
Trailing 4-3 early on, St. Olaf won 19 of the next 22 points to take a commanding 22-7 lead in set number one. The run started with two kills by Grimes in the span of three points. The Oles hit .190 in the opening set, their lowest clip of the match, but limited the Knights to a -.217 attack percentage with just three kills for Martin Luther in the set.
The Knights led 5-3 early in the second before an 8-1 run saw the Oles surge ahead. Grimes had two kills early in the run and first-year
Katelyn Lannom ended the spurt with back-to-back kills. Later in the set, St. Olaf won 10-straight points to open up a 22-8 advantage, with seven of the points coming on Martin Luther errors.
After hitting .357 in the second, St. Olaf raised their attack percentage to .407 in the third set to close out the sweep. Marxer had two early kills to help the Oles to a quick 5-2 lead and, later, back-to-back aces by junior
Emily Jarnigan stretched the lead to 12-5. Martin Luther got no closer than six the rest of the way.
St. Olaf 3, UW-River Falls 1 | Box
Reid and Rewers had 12 kills apiece in the final match of the day as the Oles claimed the final two sets to record a four-set win over UW-River Falls to close out the 2-0 day. Reid added 11 digs to post a double-double, while Wall narrowly missed out on one of her own with 37 assists and nine digs.
Lannom and Grimes each pitched in with nine kills, with Lannom hitting an efficient .389 out of the middle. Langeslag had three aces to go with a team-high 13 digs and Jarnigan contributed 12 digs to help the Oles limit the Falcons to a .128 percentage for the match, despite 18 kills from Dakotah Poitra.
A string of four-straight points midway through the opening set gave UW-River Falls a 14-10 lead, before St. Olaf went on a quick 3-0 run out of a timeout to bring the deficit back to one. Trailing 18-17, the Oles won four consecutive points, including kills by Grimes, Rewers and Reid, to take a 21-18 lead the hosts would hold onto in order to see out the first set.
St. Olaf cut a 10-5 deficit to just one, 10-9, by winning four points in a row in the second, but the Falcons maintained their lead until late in the set. With UW-River Falls up 22-18, a 5-0 run on the Langeslag serve put the Oles on top by one, only for the Falcons to win the final three points of the set to even the match at a set apiece.
The Oles put together their best hitting set of the match in the third, posting a .333 attack percentage as they claimed a two-sets-to-one lead. Neither team led by more than three until St. Olaf used a run of four-straight points to go ahead 17-12. The Falcons stayed within reach, trailing 18-14, until the Oles won five points in a row, two on Rewers kills, to give St. Olaf a comfortable lead.
A very early 4-1 lead for the Falcons was the largest lead of the fourth set until St. Olaf took control of the set in the latter stages. Grimes had a pair of kills during a 4-1 run that put the Oles ahead 18-14 and, after back-to-back points for UW-River Falls, Lannom recorded consecutive kills as part of a 4-0 run that gave St. Olaf a 22-16 advantage. The Falcons fended off two match points before a missed serve ended the match.
St. Olaf concludes its showing at the tournament on Saturday, Sept. 1 when it faces Simpson (9 a.m.) and Bethany Lutheran (11 a.m.) at Carleton's West Gym.
