NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College volleyball team bounced back from dropping the third set to finish off a four-set victory over the College of St. Scholastica in its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) and home opener on Wednesday night at Skoglund Center.

After St. Olaf (5-6, 1-0 MIAC) won the first two sets, St. Scholastica (8-2, 1-1 MIAC) grabbed a tight third set to extend the match, but the Oles closed out a 25-18, 25-19, 23-25, 25-13 victory in the fourth. St. Olaf hit a season-best .327 in the win and hit over .360 in each of the sets it won.

Junior Catherine Moore and fifth-year senior Katelyn Lannom had a match-high 13 kills apiece for St. Olaf, which also got 10 kills from first year Tatum Sims and nine kills apiece from junior Anysia Caille and senior Christina Cheng. First year Paige Christophersen recorded 31 assists and 13 digs, while classmate Taylin Gosch added 22 assists and a team-high three service aces.

Senior Selena Rodriguez tallied a match-high 26 digs for the Oles for her fourth match of the season with at least 25 digs. Cheng fell one kill shy of her third double-double of the season with 13 digs to go with her nine kills. St. Olaf enjoyed an 11-5 advantage in aces in the win and made 82 digs compared to 62 for St. Scholastica.

The Oles led the entire way in the opening set, winning the first four points and six of the first seven to take an early lead. After leading 6-1, St. Olaf never led by fewer than four points the rest of the set and got kills from seven different student-athletes while hitting .368 in the set.

St. Olaf again jumped out to a quick lead in the third set, winning seven of the first 10 points, including a rare kill by Rodriguez. St. Scholastica hung around and trailed by just four, 17-13, before the Oles won three-straight points to open up a seven-point advantage and held on to go up two sets to none. St. Olaf hit .385 in the second set.

The Oles cooled off to a .171 attack percentage in the third set while the Saints hit .314 to snatch the set and stay alive by winning a set that included 10 ties and four lead changes. St. Olaf won three-straight points to even the set at 17-17 and took a 23-22 lead on an ace by Gosch to prompt St. Scholastica's second timeout of the set. Out of the break, the Saints won the final three points to send the match to a fourth set.

St. Olaf committed just one attack error and hit .400 as a team in the fourth set to close out the win. Moore had back-to-back kills and Lannom followed with an ace to finish off an 8-2 start to the set for the Oles, who led by as many as 13 on three occasions late in the set. Junior Erica Collin had kills on the final two points of the match for St. Olaf, which picked up its fourth-straight win in the series with St. Scholastica.

The Oles head to UW-Stevens Point for the Pointers Invitational this weekend and open the tournament against the No. 12-ranked Pointers on Friday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. St. Olaf takes on St. Norbert College (12 p.m.) and Carthage College (2 p.m.) on day two of the tournament.