ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The third-seeded St. Olaf College volleyball team advanced to the championship match of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs for the second season in a row with an 18-25, 25-10, 25-20, 25-21 victory over the second-seeded College of Saint Benedict on Thursday evening at Claire Lynch Hall.
After sweeping the regular-season meeting between the two programs six days ago, St. Olaf (21-8) dropped the first set to Saint Ben's (17-10) but raced through the second set to get on its way to the four-set victory. The win improved the Oles to 7-4 all-time in the semifinals of the MIAC Playoffs and moved head coach
Emily Foster's team into the championship match for the eighth time (2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2019, 2022, 2023).
St. Olaf, which has won 12 of its last 13 matches, will head to top-seeded and No. 18-ranked Gustavus Adolphus College in the title match for the second year in a row after the Gusties swept fourth-seeded St. Catherine University in Thursday night's other semifinal. First serve will be at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 11 at Gus Young Court in St. Peter.
In addition to keeping St. Olaf's pursuit of a MIAC Playoff title alive, the win added a regionally-ranked victory to the Oles' resume for the NCAA Tournament. St. Olaf was ranked fourth in Region IX in this week's NCAA Regional Rankings, which are used to determine the field for the NCAA Tournament, while the Bennies were fifth. The victory was also the Oles' fifth in the last six meetings with the Bennies after CSB won 10 consecutive matches in the series from 2011-18.
Senior
Catherine Moore tallied a season-high 20 kills while hitting .342 to lead the way offensively for St. Olaf in the fourth 20-kill performance of her career. Fellow senior
Anysia Caille added 15 kills while hitting .367, as the duo accounted for 35 of St. Olaf's 55 kills on a night where the Oles hit .252 as a team.
Sophomore
Paige Christophersen registered her 14th double-double of the season with 28 assists and 10 digs, as she was one of four Oles in double figures in digs. Fifth-year senior
Selena Rodriguez had a match-high 19 digs, sophomore
Morgan Ryan added 11, and fifth-year senior
Christina Cheng had 11. St. Olaf also racked up 12 blocks in the win, as senior
Erica Collin, Cheng, and first year
Maren Miller were all in on at least five blocks.
Led by six kills in the set from Emma Guest, Saint Ben's hit .394 and held St. Olaf to a .111 clip on its way to winning the opening set by a 25-18 margin. Already leading 16-14, the Bennies went on an 8-2 run to bring up a string of set points at 24-16 and capitalized on their third opportunity to close out the set on a Guest's sixth kill of the set. Caille and Moore had four kills apiece in the set for the Oles.
St. Olaf flipped the script in the second set, hitting .452 while holding Saint Ben's to a -.103 clip in a dominant 25-10 set win. The Oles had 16 kills with just two errors in the set, while the Bennies tallied just five kills with eight errors. Moore delivered seven kills in the set for St. Olaf, which led 8-5 early before winning 17 of the final 22 points to even the match at a set apiece.
The Oles started the third set quickly by taking leads of 5-2, 10-6, and 15-9 before the Bennies clawed their way back to tie the set at 17-17. St. Olaf proceeded to win eight of the final 11 points of the set to grab a two-sets-to-one lead, with Moore and Caille combining for 10 of the Oles' 15 kills in the set.
St. Olaf was more balanced offensively in the fourth set, as four Oles totaled at least three kills in the final set of the night. Defensively, Rodriguez recorded seven digs in the set and St. Olaf picked up four blocks to hold the Bennies to a .150 attack percentage. Neither team led by more than two points until the Oles won three-straight points to go up by four at 19-15, but CSB quickly got back within two at 20-18. A block by Caille and Collin followed by a kill by Caille pushed St. Olaf's lead back to four and the Oles eventually closed out the win on a ball handling error by the Bennies.
