NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The third-seeded St. Olaf College volleyball team will head to the second-seeded College of Saint Benedict in the semifinals of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs on Thursday night.

St. Olaf advanced to the semifinals with a four-set home victory over sixth-seeded Concordia-Moorhead in the quarterfinals on Monday night and will take on Saint Ben's at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 9 at Claire Lynch Hall in St. Joseph. The Bennies earned a bye into the semifinals by virtue of securing the No. 2 seed with a 9-2 mark in the regular season.

Per MIAC policy, admission will be charged for the MIAC Playoffs. Tickets are $10 for adults and $2 for students with ID. Children five and under will be admitted for free. MIAC passes will be accepted, but no other passes will be honored. Live video and live stats will be available courtesy of Saint Ben's.

In the other semifinal, fourth-seeded St. Catherine University will trek south to take on regular-season champion and top-seeded Gustavus Adolphus College at 7 p.m. in St. Peter. The winners of Thursday night's semifinals will vie for the playoff title and the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. at the site of the highest remaining seed.

On Monday night, St. Olaf recovered from dropping the second set in extra points to down sixth-seeded Concordia by scores of 25-20, 26-28, 25-17, 25-16 in the quarterfinals to earn a trip to St. Joseph. The Cobbers rallied from an eight-point deficit to win the second set, but the Oles used big runs late in both the third and fourth sets to secure the four-set victory. St. Olaf, which will appear in the semifinals for the 12th time in 14 trips to the MIAC Playoffs, had kills on 67 of its 84 points in the win, as four Oles tallied double-figure kills in the match.

Saint Ben's has appeared in the MIAC Playoffs in every season of the tournament since 2000 except for 2016 and is 21-19 all-time in the event. The 21 victories are the second-highest total of any program, trailing only the University of St. Thomas, and the most among current MIAC institutions. The Bennies have won the MIAC Playoffs on two occasions, doing so in 2009 and 2017.

St. Olaf and Saint Ben's have met four times previously in the MIAC Playoffs, with the Oles coming out on top in three of the four. The last two meetings have come in the semifinals, with St. Olaf picking up a four-set win in 2019 and a five-set victory in 2010. The Bennies' lone win was a sweep in the championship match in 2009. The regular-season matchup between the two teams came just last Friday, when St. Olaf secured a home quarterfinal match with a 25-22, 25-21, 25-19 sweep for its fourth victory in the last five meetings in the series.