NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The top-seeded St. Olaf College volleyball team cruised to a 25-8, 25-18, 25-16 sweep of fourth-seeded Bethel University in the semifinals of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs on Thursday evening at Skoglund Center.
On a night where senior
Morgan Ryan broke the single-season digs record, St. Olaf (26-7) hit .336, compared to .062 for Bethel (15-11), to sweep the Royals and move on to the championship match. The Oles will host the third-seeded College of Saint Benedict in the title match on Saturday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. after the Bennies knocked off second-seeded Gustavus Adolphus College in five sets in the other semifinal in St. Peter.
Ryan entered the night just three digs shy of breaking St. Olaf's single-season digs record of 711 set by Kirstee Rotty '13 in 2012 and moved past Rotty with five digs in the opening set. Before the match, the Oles honored Ryan for recording the 2,000th dig of her standout career last weekend.
Junior
Evelyn Kreft and sophomore
Mehsa Krause tallied 14 kills apiece and both hit at least .333 to lead St. Olaf offensively. Senior
Paige Christophersen and sophomore
Sophie Saxton orchestrated the offense, with Christophersen recording 21 assists, 10 digs, and an ace and Saxton adding 17 assists, seven digs, and two aces.
Ryan led four Oles in double figures in digs with a match-high 16. Krause added 14 digs to her 14 kills for her 10th double-double of the season, while junior
Michaela Dooley picked up 12 digs. St. Olaf held Bethel to a .062 attack percentage and limited Peyton Howie – the MIAC Offensive Player of the Year – to two kills and a -.077 attack percentage on the night.
St. Olaf stormed out to leads of 7-0 and 10-1 to start the match and force Bethel to burn both of its timeouts early on. The Oles eased to a 25-8 set win after hitting .484 with 16 kills and one attack error, while the Royals hit -.057 with five kills and seven errors.
In set two, St. Olaf cooled off to a .214 attack percentage but still won the set comfortably, 25-18, in wire-to-wire fashion. The Oles jumped out to a 10-4 lead early on and broke open the set with a 6-0 run that resulted in a 17-8 lead. Krause and Kreft had four kills apiece in the set.
Bethel took its only lead of the night by winning the first point of the third set on an ace, but St. Olaf won seven of the next nine points to build a 7-3 lead. The Royals fought back to tie the set at 14-14 before the Oles took six of the next seven points to grab the lead for good. Kreft and Krause combined for 11 kills in the third, as St. Olaf hit .351 with 18 kills.
