NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The No. 25-ranked St. Olaf College volleyball team swept crosstown-rival Carleton College for the third consecutive meeting, winning by scores of 25-12, 25-20, 25-16 in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) opener for both teams on Wednesday night at West Gym.
St. Olaf (9-3, 1-0 MIAC) recorded its second-highest team hitting percentage of the season by hitting at a .317 clip in the sweep of Carleton (7-5, 0-1 MIAC), which earned the Oles the right to keep possession of "The Bell", the traveling cowbell trophy the two teams play for annually. The win was the Oles' seventh in the last eight meetings with the Knights but just their second in the last six meetings at West Gym.
On a night where only one St. Olaf hitter had more than two attack errors, the Oles cruised to set wins in the first and third sets and came from behind with a strong close to the second set in the win. Senior
Evelyn Kreft had a match-high 12 kills for St. Olaf, which got a season-high 10 kills on 17 swings from junior
Carlie Beckstrand, who hit .529 on the night.
Seniors
Lilah Van Scoyoc and
Maren Miller contributed eight kills apiece, while junior
Mehsa Krause added six to go with 13 digs and an ace. Sophomore
Lauren Welch made a career-high 18 digs to join Krause and senior
Michaela Dooley (13) in double figures. Sophomore
Kailani Schroeder handed out 22 assists and junior
Sophie Saxton had 21.
In the opening set, St. Olaf hit .438 with 15 kills and just one attack error, while Carleton hit .031 with eight errors in a dominant 25-12 set win for the Oles. Beckstrand had five kills on seven errorless swings in the set, which St. Olaf broke open early with an 8-0 run that opened up a 13-4 lead.
Carleton got out to a 4-1 start in the second set and led by as many as six at 15-9. The Knights were stlll up by four at 17-13 before the Oles won 12 of the final 15 points of the set to go up by two sets. Kreft piled up nine kills on 12 swings in the middle set.
After Kreft dominated the second set offensively for St. Olaf, six Oles provided multiple kills in the third to finish off the sweep. Dooley, the reigning MIAC Specialty Player of the Week, delivered back-to-back aces in a 6-1 start to the set, and Carleton never got closer than four points the rest of the way.
St. Olaf will face the University of Minnesota Morris at 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25 to start the St. Olaf-Carleton Invitational.
