NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The top-seeded St. Olaf College volleyball team won the first two sets before the third-seeded College of Saint Benedict fought back to claim a five-set (23-25, 15-25, 25-18, 25-20, 17-15) victory in the championship match of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Volleyball Playoffs on Saturday night at Skoglund Center.

St. Olaf (26-8) hit a combined .347 over the first two sets to jump out to a two-sets-to-none lead, but Saint Ben's (21-6) rallied to force a fifth. In the decider, the Oles came back from an 11-8 deficit to eventually hold a match point at 15-14, but the Bennies took the final three points to defend their MIAC Playoff title and return to the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship.

St. Olaf, which fell to 3-6 all-time in MIAC Playoff title matches, will await word on a potential at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament when the field is announced via a selection show on NCAA.com on Monday at 12 p.m. CST. The Oles were ranked No. 28 in the most recent updated to the NCAA Power Index (NPI), which is used to select the 21 at-large qualifiers.

Junior Evelyn Kreft recorded a match-high 20 kills for St. Olaf, which got a 13-kill, 14-dig double-double from sophomore Mehsa Krause and a 10-kill, 11-dig double-double from sophomore Carlie Beckstrand. Senior Paige Christophersen and sophomore Sophie Saxton also logged double-doubles, as Christophersen compiled 27 assists, 10 digs, and four aces, while Saxton had 22 assists and 13 digs. Senior Morgan Ryan registered a match-high 33 digs.

Both teams hit over .300 in an opening set that included seven ties before the Oles closed the set on a 4-2 spurt to take it, 25-23. With the score tied at 21-21, Krause and Beckstrand delivered consecutive kills before Christophersen hit an ace to bring up three set points. Saint Ben's fended off the first two before Beckstrand ended the set with her fifth kill of the set. Kreft had eight kills on 11 errorless swings in the opening set.

St. Olaf took the second set comfortably, 25-15, after hitting .296 compared to just .000 for Saint Ben's. The Oles surged out to a 6-2 lead early on and led by as many as 11 on two occasions thanks, in part, to four aces in the set.

After recording just four attack errors in the first two sets combined, St. Olaf had nine in the third and eight in the fourth, as the Bennies fought back to force a fifth set. In the third, the teams were tied at 16-16 before Saint Ben's closed the set on a 9-2 run to stay alive. The visitors jumped out to a 12-5 lead in the fourth and held off a late charge by the Oles, who got within three points twice late on after trailing by as many as 10.

In the fifth, Saint Ben's used a pair of 4-0 runs to take leads of 5-2 and 10-6, but St. Olaf responded to the latter with a 6-1 run to take a 12-11 lead. The Bennies reclaimed the lead at 13-12 and 14-13 before Krause and Kreft delivered kills on back-to-back points to give the Oles a match point. Mackenzie Knofczynski kept the Bennies alive with a kill before an ace and a block gave the visitors the win.