ST. PAUL, Minn. – The St. Olaf College volleyball team snapped its three-match Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) losing streak with a 25-21, 19-25, 25-19, 25-19 road victory over St. Catherine University on Wednesday night at Butler Center.
Seniors
Anysia Caille and
Catherine Moore carried the load offensively for St. Olaf (11-7, 3-3 MIAC), combining for 29 kills to help the Oles to the four-set win over St. Catherine (11-6, 4-2 MIAC), which saw its three-match MIAC winning streak come to an end. The victory was the Oles' 12th in a row in the series since 2011 and their 18th in the last 19 meetings going back to 2006.
Caille recorded a match-high 15 kills and hit .286, while Moore registered 14 kills and hit .417, as the duo accounted for 29 of St. Olaf's 48 kills in the victory. No other Ole had more than five kills on the night in a match where neither team hit over .222 in a set.
Defensively, St. Olaf limited St. Kate's to a .065 attack percentage in the match, as five Oles had at least 10 digs on the night. The .065 attack percentage was the lowest for a St. Olaf opponent this season and the third-lowest mark of the season for the Wildcats.
Junior
Maycie Rogers and fifth-year senior
Selena Rodriguez tied for match-high honors with 18 digs, with Rogers' 18 digs marking a career-high total. Rodriguez's 18 digs brought her career total to 1,537, moving her up one spot to fifth on St. Olaf's all-time list by surpassing Kari Rogne '96.
Sophomore
Paige Christophersen, sophomore
Morgan Ryan, and first year
Skylar Fildew had 10 digs apiece, with Christophersen and Fildew logging double-doubles for the Oles. Christophersen posted her fourth-straight double-double with 20 assists and 10 digs and Fildew had her third of the season, while Ryan added a team-high three aces to her 10 digs.
After losing the first point of the match, St. Olaf won seven points in a row – four on St. Kate's attack errors – to race out to a 7-1 lead early on. The Oles did not trail for the rest of the set but held just a one-point lead at 21-20 before winning four of the final five points of the opener. Moore had seven kills on nine swings in the set, including a kill to bring up set point at 24-20 and another two points later to close it out.
St. Kate's knotted the match at a set apiece by using a pair of late runs to take the set by a 25-19 score. After facing a 16-11 deficit, the Oles pulled within a point by winning the next four points, but the Wildcats won four-straight points to go up 21-16 and took the final three points of the set. Tiffany Tellez tallied six kills in the set for the hosts, while Caille had five for St. Olaf.
Caille was the lone student-athlete on either team with more than two kills in the third, delivering six on 12 swings to help the Oles go up by a set again. St. Olaf put together a pair of 4-0 runs early to open up a 12-5 lead and led by at least two for the rest of the set, holding the Wildcats to a -.067 attack percentage in the third.
St. Olaf continued to hold St. Kate's in check in the fourth, getting 10 digs and four kills from Rogers while limiting the Wildcats to a .060 clip. The teams were tied for the eighth time in the set at 17-17 before the Oles won eight of the next 10 points to finish off the four-set win. Moore had kills on the final two points of the match to complete her 14-kill evening.
St. Olaf travels to Iowa to face Wartburg College (5 p.m.) and Buena Vista University (7 p.m.) at the Wartburg Quad on Friday, Oct. 13.