NORTHFIELD, Minn. – In a matchup of two of the top-three teams in the region, the second-seeded St. Olaf College volleyball team will host the third-seeded College of Saint Benedict in the semifinals of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs on Thursday evening.
In its third-straight appearance in the MIAC Playoffs, St. Olaf (25-4, 8-3-0 MIAC) received a bye in the quarterfinals, while Saint Benedict (23-4, 8-3 MIAC) swept sixth-seeded Bethel at home on Tuesday evening. The Oles were ranked second in the Central Region on Wednesday afternoon, followed by the Bennies in third.
In accordance with conference policy, tickets for Thursday night's game are $10 for adults and $2 for students with ID. Children five and younger are free. MIAC passes will be honored. The athletic department will cover the cost of all St. Olaf students, who will need to enter at the south gate and are encouraged to wear white for a whiteout.
Thursday night's other semifinal will see top-seeded St. Thomas host fourth-seeded Augsburg at 7 p.m. in St. Paul. The highest remaining seed will host the championship match on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m.
St. Olaf is making its 11th all-time appearance in the MIAC Playoffs and holds a record of 12-8 through its previous 20 matches in the tournament. The Oles have won the tournament on three occasions (2000, 2002, 2010), which is the third-most of any MIAC program (St. Thomas 6, Concordia 4).
The No. 2 seed is St. Olaf's highest in the MIAC Playoffs since winning the title in 2010 as the No. 1 seed. The Oles were swept by No. 3 seed St. Thomas in the quarterfinals last year after falling to the top-seeded Tommies in the semifinals in 2017 as the No. 4 seed.
St. Olaf's 25 victories this season are the most by the program since the 2010 team went 31-5 on its way to an appearance in the regional final. The Oles were picked sixth in the MIAC Preseason Coaches' Poll this fall, but defeated three of the teams picked ahead of them to finish in a three-way tie for second. St. Olaf got the No. 2 seed by virtue of head-to-head wins over Saint Benedict and Augsburg.
Four Oles earned All-MIAC honors on Wednesday afternoon, led by senior outside hitter
Lauren Rewers and junior setter
Lexi Wall, who collected their third-straight all-conference honors. Senior libero
Emily Jarnigan and sophomore middle blocker
Katelyn Lannom picked up the first all-conference selections of their careers.
Rewers has put together her third-straight season with at least 365 kills and ranks second in the MIAC with 375 this season, while also contributing 263 digs. After ranking second in the country in assists per set last season, Wall currently leads NCAA Division III with a mark of 11.56 assists per set this season.
In her first season as the libero, Jarnigan leads the MIAC in digs (605) and digs per set (5.45) this season, while reaching double figures in every match. Lannom has been one of the top middles in the conference, ranking in the conference's top 10 in aces, attack percentage, aces per set, points, kills, points per set, total blocks and kills per set.
Junior
Summer Reid, a two-time All-MIAC selection, ranks sixth in the MIAC in kills (324) and eighth in kills per set (2.95). Juniors
Morgan Marxer (249 kills) and
Jordan Melz (214 digs) have also contributed offensively and defensively for the Oles.
Saint Benedict has appeared in the MIAC Playoffs in 19 of the tournament's 20 seasons, missing out only in 2016. The Bennies own a 19-16 record in the tournament, have won the title on two occasions (2009, 2017), and have been a top-three seed in each of their last seven berths in the MIAC Playoffs.
The Bennies are led by junior right side Hunter Weiss, who became the program's first MIAC Player of the Year since 1990 on Wednesday and is averaging 3.78 kills per set while hitting .416 this season. Madison Weiss, Hunter's twin sister, and setter Katie Koch were also All-MIAC honorees, as M. Weiss averages 3.44 kills per set and is hitting .435 and Koch's mark of 11.14 assists per set trails only Wall in the MIAC.
Earlier this season, St. Olaf swept then-No. 5-ranked Saint Ben's by scores of 25-22, 25-23, 25-22 on Oct. 12 at Skoglund Center. The win was the first for the Oles against a top-five team since Oct. 26, 2001 (No. 5 Elmhurst), the first against CSB since Nov. 4, 2010, and marked the first time the Bennies had been swept since Sept. 20, 2017.
Saint Ben's owns a 44-33-2 lead in the all-time series against St. Olaf, while the Oles have won two of the three all-time meetings in the MIAC Playoffs. The two programs have not met in the conference tournament since 2010, when St. Olaf claimed a five-set win a year after the Bennies topped the Oles in three in the championship match.
