09/16/06

 Alas, the Yellowjackets took the first game from the Saints and history looked like it was…well, you know.

Not this time, though, as the Saints knotted things up with a 30-20 game two win.

The stingy ’Jackets hung in and stole game three with a 32-30 ‘overtime’ victory and with it, a 2-1 lead.

Not only was the match on the line as the teams returned to the court for game four, but the Border Battle crown, St. Scholastica’s six-match win streak, and that little thing called bragging rights were also up for grabs.

Late in the fourth game the Saints had to fight from behind, eventually grabbing the lead at 27-26. They would go on to score the next three points and once again tie the match up, forcing it to a fifth game.

The Saints had just completed the comeback against Viterbo in the match immediately prior to the Superior contest so common sense said that the Saints might be too fatigued to pull off yet another miracle finish.

UWS grabbed a 3-0 lead in the deciding game behind a couple of errors on the Saints side of the court.

Surely this was it. The end of the streak. No more gas left in the tank…cliché, cliché, cliché.

Almost unbelievably, the Saints immediately evened the score, though, and the see-saw battle that was the first four games continued throughout the final game.

Finally, the Saints found themselves ahead 14-13 and with one final kill, put everything back in its rightful place in their universe – winning a thrilling five-setter, picking up a tournament crown, bragging rights against a worthy rival, and the continuation of a win streak that has stretched to seven and enabled the 7-6 Saints to claim a winning record.

A quartet of Saints reached double-figures in kills as Shawna Varichak (20), Erin Niles (17), Amy Thompson (15) and LeAnn Berscheit (13) accounted for 65 of the team’s 68 kills in the match.

Setter Katie Berscheit tied a season-high in assists with 58, and defensive specialist Diana Moody picked up 30 digs for St. Scholastica.