ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The St. Olaf College volleyball team began its season with a four-set win over the University of California Santa Cruz and a sweep of Webster University at the WashU Bear Invitational on Friday at WashU Field House.
St. Olaf (2-0) gave first-year head coach
Emma Nelson her first two victories as a collegiate head coach with the victories over UC Santa Cruz (0-1) and Webster (2-2). The Oles, who received votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Preseason Poll earlier in the week, held the two opponents to a combined .059 attack percentage and averaged 2.71 blocks per set in the two wins.
On day two of the tournament, St. Olaf will face Bowdoin College at 12:30 p.m. and the host and No. 14-ranked Washington University in St. Louis at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 5.
St. Olaf 3, UC Santa Cruz 1 | Box Score
After the two teams split the first two sets, St. Olaf took the final two to come away with a 25-19, 22-25, 25-21, 25-13 victory in the season opener for both teams. The Oles limited the Banana Slugs to a .015 attack percentage over the final two sets of the victory in the first meeting between the two programs since 2012 and just the second match in the head-to-head series.
Senior
Lilah Van Scoyoc tallied a match-high 13 kills and hit .440 to go with four digs and three block assists to lead the way for St. Olaf. Junior
Mehsa Krause added 10 kills, eight digs, two aces, and two blocks, while senior
Maren Miller had eight kills and was in on four total blocks.
Junior
Sophie Saxton recorded 20 assists, three aces, and five digs, while senior
Michaela Dooley registered a team-high 10 digs and four assists. St. Olaf hit .223 and had nine aces in the win, with sophomore
Kailani Schroeder matching Saxton with three aces.
In the opening set, St. Olaf did not trail after going on a 3-1 run to tie the set at 4-4 early on. The Oles used a 4-0 run late in the set to turn a 17-13 lead into a 21-13 advantage and went on to take the set by a 25-19 margin behind kills from seven different Oles in the set.
UC Santa Cruz evened the match at a set apiece by winning the second behind six kills from Riley Sawyer. After trailing 21-17, the Oles got within a point three times late in the second, but the Bana Slugs won the final two points to close out the set.
Van Scoyoc recorded five kills on seven swings in the third set to lead the Oles to a 25-21 set win in a set that included 12 ties and eight lead changes. In the fourth, Krause delivered five kills on eight errorless swings to pace St. Olaf, which closed the match on a 6-0 run for Nelson's first win as a head coach.
St. Olaf 3, Webster 0 | Box Score
St. Olaf closed out a 2-0 opening day by hitting .253 and holding Webster to a -.024 clip while rolling to a 25-12, 25-11, 25-16 victory. Eleven Oles had at least one kill in the win, which was the second in as many meetings in the all-time series with the Gorlocks. St. Olaf also swept Webster in St. Louis on Sept. 2, 2023.
Kreft led the match with 12 kills and added a pair of aces, while Miller had eight kills on 12 swings to hit .583. Dolley was in double figures in digs for the second time on the day with a match-high 12, while Saxton (15) and Schroeder (14) combined for 29 assists.
St. Olaf never trailed in either of the first two sets, starting the first on a 5-1 run and the second on an 8-1 win on its way to convincing set wins. The Oles' only deficit of the night came after losing the first point of the third set, but St. Olaf rattled off the next six points to get on its way to finishing off the sweep.
