BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The fifth-seeded St. Olaf College volleyball team fought back from two sets to none down to force a fifth set before falling to second-ranked and top-seeded Illinois Wesleyan University by a 25-19, 28-26, 21-25, 14-25, 15-8 score in the regional semifinals of the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship on Friday night at the Shirk Center.
Facing an Illinois Wesleyan (28-2) team that was 15-0 at home this season and had only dropped five sets on its home court all year, St. Olaf (27-9) battled back from dropping the second set in extra points to win the third and fourth sets to send the match the distance. In the fifth, the Oles held a 7-4 lead before the Titans won 11 of the final 12 points to advance to the regional final on their home court.
St. Olaf became the first team all season to hit above .300 against Illinois Wesleyan, hitting at a .312 clip, compared to .271 for the hosts. The Titans made up for the difference by recording 11 aces, as five different IWU student-athletes had multiple aces on the night.
The loss brought an end to a season that included St. Olaf's first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) regular-season title since 2010, as well as its first NCAA Tournament victory and highest season win total (27) since the same year.
Junior
Evelyn Kreft led three Oles in double figures in kills with 18 while hitting .361. Junior
Maren Miller tallied a career-high 16 kills on 26 errorless swings to hit .615, while sophomore
Mehsa Krause added 12 kills of her own. Senior
Paige Christophersen concluded her career with 26 assists, seven digs, three aces, and one kill, while sophomore
Sophie Saxton had a double-double of 24 assists and 13 digs. Senior
Morgan Ryan registered a match-high 31 digs to go with six assists and an ace to wrap up a record-setting senior season.
The first set featured 10 ties and five lead changes before Illinois Wesleyan built up an 18-15 lead with a 5-1 run. St. Olaf hung in the set to trail by just two at 20-18 before the Titans went on another 5-1 run to take the set.
Illinois Wesleyan hit .450 with 20 kills in the second set but needed extra points to outlast St. Olaf, which had 18 kills and hit .286 itself. The Oles held a six-point advantage at 22-16 before the Titans won five points in a row to get within one. St. Olaf brought up a pair of set points up 24-22 but could not convert. The hosts held a pair of set points of their own at 25-24 and 26-25 before eventually taking the set, 28-26, to go up by two sets.
In the third, St. Olaf hit .424 with 16 kills and just two attack errors, led by six kills from Krause and four from Kreft. The Oles were up 17-12 before the Titans closed the gap to one with a 4-0 spurt. Kreft had kills on three of the next four points to help St. Olaf hold off Illinois Wesleyan and force a fourth set.
The Oles hit even better in the fourth, posting a .464 attack percentage with 13 kills and zero errors on 28 swings. After 1-1 and 3-3 ties early on, St. Olaf led for the remainder of the set, with Miller recording six kills on seven errorless swings in the set. The Oles also held the Titans to a match-low .132 attack percentage to send the match the distance.
St. Olaf broke a 4-4 tie with three consecutive kills from Kreft to open up a 7-4 lead in the decider but won just one point the rest of the way. Illinois Wesleyan won the next six points before another kill by Kreft made it 10-8 and went on to take the final five points. The Titans had two aces and did not commit an attack error in the fifth, while the Oles had five attack errors and hit .087.
