NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College volleyball team took the first set before the No. 18-ranked University of St. Thomas rallied to top the Oles in four sets (20-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-15) in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) opener for both teams on Wednesday night at Skoglund Center.

St. Olaf (11-2, 0-1 MIAC) held St. Thomas (11-2, 1-0 MIAC) to a .029 attack percentage in the opening set before the Tommies held the Oles under .120 in each of the final three sets. St. Olaf, which sat just outside the top 25 in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III Poll, was looking for its first victory against a nationally-ranked opponent since sweeping No. 19 Cornell on Sept. 8, 2017.

Senior Emily Jarnigan tallied a match-high 25 digs for St. Olaf, marking her sixth match of the season with at least 20. Junior Lexi Wall notched her ninth double-double of the season with 34 assists and 14 digs. With eight digs on the night, senior Haley Langeslag moved past Nicole (Trnka) Hess '02 and into 10th place in program history in digs (1,277)

Junior Summer Reid recorded a team-high 11 digs and was joined in double figures by sophomore Katelyn Lannom, who finished with 10 to reach double digits for the fifth-straight match. Junior Lauren Rewers added nine and junior Morgan Marxer contributed eight.

Three-straight aces by Lannom capped a 6-1 run by St. Olaf early in the first set to help the Oles to an 11-6 lead. The Oles led by between two and five points for the rest of the set to take the opener, 25-20.

The Tommies raced out to a quick 5-0 lead in the second set and held three seven-point leads before the Oles mounted a comeback. Down 14-7, St. Olaf used a pair of 4-0 runs to tie the set at 15-15. St. Thomas regrouped by winning the next six points thanks to kills from four different Tommies and held on to take the set, 25-20, to even the match at a set apiece.

Reid recorded three kills in a six-point stretch midway through the third set as the Oles built a 14-8 lead at a St. Thomas timeout. Out of the break, the Tommies went on a 12-3 run to establish a 20-17 lead, but St. Olaf responded with a 4-0 run, capped by a Wall kill, to edge ahead by a point. St. Thomas won five of the final seven points out of its second timeout of the set to grab a two-sets-to-one lead.

In the fourth, the Tommies surged ahead, 13-8, after a 6-1 run and did not look back, hitting a match-high .379 on their way to closing out the four-set win.

St. Thomas got a match-high 12 digs from Fran Egan, while Hannah Braun added 10. Ellie Meyer was one of three Tommies with double-digit digs, finishing with a match-high 20.

St. Olaf travels to Cedar Rapids, Iowa this weekend for the Mabel Lee Invitational, hosted by Coe College. The Oles open the tournament on Friday, Sept. 20 with matches against UW-Platteville (5 p.m.) and host Coe (7 p.m.).