NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Sophomore
Anysia Caille had a career-high 11 kills and hit .556 to propel the St. Olaf College volleyball team to a 25-10, 25-14, 25-20 sweep of visiting Macalester College in its home opener on Friday evening at Skoglund Center.
Caille reached double figures in kills for the second time this season for St. Olaf (6-9, 2-0 MIAC) and her 11 kills were also a match-high total. The Oles hit over .400 in each of the first two sets on their way to comfortable set wins before Macalester (10-6, 1-2 MIAC) pushed St. Olaf in a tight third set.
On a night where the Oles hit .281 as a team, first year
Madison Gully had nine kills and hit .294, while sophomore
Catherine Moore and senior
Katelyn Lannom had eight and seven kills, respectively. St. Olaf's defense limited Macalester to a .051 attack percentage thanks in part to 13 digs by junior
Selena Rodriguez and 11 from sophomore
Kylie Reardon.
Right out of the gate, the Oles raced out to a 6-0 lead in the opening set as junior
Christina Cheng delivered a pair of aces early on. The Scots quickly closed the gap to one, 8-7, before St. Olaf responded with a 6-0 run to establish a 14-7 lead. Leading 15-10, the Oles won the final 10 points of the set on Gray's serve to wrap up a set in which they hit .417 with just two errors.
St. Olaf broke an early 4-4 tie in the second set by winning 14 of the next 16 points, including nine in a row when leading 9-6, to go up 18-6. Caille had four of her six kills in the set in the 9-0 run as the Oles led by at least nine the rest of the way to take a two-sets-to-none lead.
In the third, St. Olaf opened up a 13-8 lead but Macalester hung around to tie the score at 14-14 with a 5-0 run. The Scots trailed by just one, 19-18, before the Oles took advantage of a service error, a ball handling error, and a bad set as part of a decisive 4-0 run to build a five-point cushion.
St. Olaf has a quick turnaround with a road match at Hamline on Saturday, Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. The Pipers and Oles are two of the four teams in the MIAC that are 2-0 after Hamline rallied for a five-set win over Augsburg on Friday evening.
