ST. PAUL, Minn. – The St. Olaf College volleyball team saw its nine-match winning streak come to an end, falling 25-22, 25-13, 22-25, 25-20 to the University of St. Thomas on the road on Wednesday evening in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) match at Schoenecker Arena.
After St. Thomas (11-5, 4-1 MIAC) won the first two sets, St. Olaf (13-2, 3-1 MIAC) extended the match to a fourth set by winning the final three points of the third set. The Tommies, however, regrouped and won the fourth set to claim their ninth-straight victory in the series.
St. Olaf's nine-match winning streak was the longest for the Oles since the 2001 team started the season 15-0. The nine-straight victories helped St. Olaf receive 22 votes in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III Coaches Top 25 Poll.
The Tommies held the Oles to a season-low .106 hitting percentage. St. Olaf hit .355 in the third set but hit under .100 in each of the other three sets. St. Thomas hit between .212 and .297 in all four sets and finished at .250 for the match.
Junior
Lauren Rewers paced St. Olaf with 14 kills, while senior
Megan Grimes and sophomore
Summer Reid each tallied 10. Reid added 12 digs for her fourth double-double of the season. Junior
Haley Langeslag recorded 22 digs to lead the Oles in the category.
First-year
Brynne Gray (24) and sophomore
Lexi Wall (18) combined for 42 assists. Sophomore
Morgan Marxer and senior
Alison Curry were each in on four blocks.
Fran Egan led four Tommies in double figures with a match-high 16 kills. Madie Kroehler notched a double-double of 10 kills and 22 digs, while Katharine Mallak handed out 52 assists.
After trailing 15-9 in the opening set, St. Olaf stormed back to tie the set at 16-16 following a 7-1 run. The Tommies, who did not trail in the set, broke a 17-17 tie with a 3-0 run, but the Oles fought back again to tie the set at 21-21 after a Wall ace. St. Thomas, however, claimed the next three points and closed out the set on an Egan kill.
St. Thomas did not trail in the second set on its way to a two-sets-to-none lead. Leading 8-7, the Tommies used a run of four-straight point to build a five-point advantage before running away with the set, 25-13.
St. Olaf won the first three points of the third to take its first lead of the night. A 6-2 lead for the Oles was the largest of the set but St. Thomas took an 18-15 lead towards the tail end of the set after a 4-0 run. With the score locked at 22-22, Rewers delivered a kill and an ace in succession before a block by Gray and Curry extended the match to a fourth set.
Early in the fourth, the Tommies took an 8-6 lead by winning four consecutive points and held the lead for the remainder of the set. Down 19-13, the Oles strung together four points in a row to prompt a St. Thomas timeout. Out of the break, the Tommies won four in a row of their own and went on to close out the four-set victory.
Next up for the Oles is a trip to Bethel University to face the Royals on Saturday, Sept. 29 at 1 p.m.
