10/07/06

In a battle for second place in the conference, the visiting Eagles from Northwestern College finished off the Saints 3-1 in a Saturday afternoon match-up between the two Upper Midwest Athletic Conference schools.

Both teams came into the match with 3-2 conference marks after the Saints defeated Crown College on Friday night while Northwestern was taking down the LumberJills from Northland College. The Eagles and St. Scholastica trail Martin Luther College and Bethany Lutheran College, each with perfect 4-0 UMAC records, who are tied atop the UMAC standings.

Both the first and second games in Saturday’s match were ebb and flow type matches as both teams repeatedly grabbed two or three point leads only to watch the other team run a string together to move ahead by a similar margin.

Northwestern eventually pulled away late in game one, the Saints pulling the same trick to take game two.

Game three followed suit until the Eagles began to stretch their lead after both teams were tied at 19. They opened up a four point lead that they would carry to a 30-26 game three win, and into a 2-1 lead in the match.

The Saints have often staged come backs in this situation this year, but the Eagles eked out a game four 30-28 win to capture the match and take sole possession of second place in the UMAC.

LeAnn Berscheit led the Saints in kills with 14, and sister Kati led the team in set assists with 40.

For the Eagles, Steph Koth had a match-leading 25 kills while Sarah Zosel registered 54 assists.

The Saints dropped to 12-12 overall and 3-3 in the UMAC while Northwestern improved to 9-13, 4-2.