NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College volleyball team celebrated Senior Day by sweeping the College of St. Scholastica and Wartburg College in a tri-match on Saturday at Skoglund Center to close out the regular season.
After honoring its seniors and their families prior to the start of the matches, St. Olaf (23-7, 9-2 MIAC) won all six of its sets on the day, sweeping St. Scholastica (7-18, 2-9 MIAC) by scores of 26-24, 25-16, 25-16 and Wartburg (18-12) by scores of 25-16, 25-13, 25-23. The Oles entered the match with the Saints already having secured the No. 2 seed in next week's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs.
St. Olaf will host a semifinal on Thursday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. The Oles will face the highest remaining seed following Tuesday's two quarterfinal matches.
St. Olaf 3, St. Scholastica 0 | Box Score
St. Olaf started the day by racking up 11 total blocks while hitting .264 as a team in the sweep of St. Scholastica. The 11 blocks helped the Oles limit the Saints to a .122 hitting percentage in St. Olaf's eighth sweep in its nine-match winning streak in the series.
Senior
Lilah Van Scoyoc led St. Olaf's offense with 13 kills and just one error for a .480 hitting percentage in the win. Senior
Evelyn Kreft added 10 kills, junior
Mehsa Krause had eight, and sophomore
Zahara Johnson tallied six. First year
Kaela Clerveaux recorded 22 assists, eight digs, and two aces.
Johnson, senior
Maren Miller, and junior
Carlie Beckstrand were all in on at least five blocks, led by Johnson's six total blocks. Senior
Michaela Dooley had 20 digs to go with two assists and an ace.
St. Olaf faced a 22-19 deficit late in the opening set before winning it in extra points. Trailing by three, the Oles won the next three points to tie it up and, later, saved a set point down 24-23 on a service error by the Saints. After the missed serve, St. Olaf got a block from Miller and Beckstrand and a kill by Krause to wrap up the set.
Kreft and Van Scoyoc had four kills apiece as the Oles hit .342 with just two attack errors in the second set. St. Olaf broke a 4-4 tie with a 4-0 run and led the rest of the way to go up two sets to none. Van Scoyoc added five more kills in a third set that saw the Oles win five points in a row to break a 13-13 tie as part of a 12-3 closing run.
St. Olaf 3, Wartburg 0 | Box Score
After easing to wins in the first two sets, St. Olaf came back from 23-21 down late in the third to complete the night with another sweep. The Oles hit a combined .348 over the first two sets before cooling off to a .133 clip in the third but got the job done with a 4-0 close to the third.
Kreft led the match with 11 kills and just one error on 20 swings to hit an even .500 while also adding four block assists. Krause tallied nine kills and seven digs, while Van Scoyoc had eight more kills and Miller recorded seven kills and eight total blocks. Dooley made 13 digs, while Clerveaux handed out a team-high 19 assists.
St. Olaf started the match with two 5-0 runs in the first 11 points to open up a 10-1 cushion and led by at least six for the rest of the set. In the second, the Oles won six points in a row to build a 12-5 lead and won the final nine points of the set after holding a 16-13 edge.
St. Olaf did not lead in the third set until going on a 6-0 run to take a 19-16 lead, but Wartburg countered with a 7-2 run to claim a 23-21 advantage. Out of a timeout, the Oles got a kill from Kreft, a bad set by the Knights, a block by Miller and Beckstrand, and a kill by Krause to finish the match.
