10/11/06

Nine years. Almost to the day.

That’s how long it’s been since the Northland College LumberJills have beaten a St. Scholastica volleyball team. The Saints 21-game win streak over the ’Jills has now stretched to 22 with Wednesday night’s 3-0 victory in the Reif Center on the campus of St. Scholastica.

Northland visited the Saints on October 15, 1997 and took home a 3-1 win over the Saints. Since then, it’s been all Saints.

Wednesday’s match started out that way, too, as the Saints jumped out to early double-digit leads in each of the first two games of the conference match-up, both times finishing Northland off by identical 30-12 scores.

A tenacious LumberJill (7-16, 2-5 UMAC) squad fought back in the third game, playing point for point with the Saints until the score reached a 21-21 tie. St. Scholastica only allowed Northland two more points the rest of the night as they streaked to the third game victory that clinched the match and pushed both their overall and conference records above the .500 mark.

St. Scholastica (13-12, 4-3 UMAC) was sparked offensively by sophomore Amy Thompson whose 11 kills led all players in the match. Freshman Rebecca Udermann chipped in with nine kills, also more than any Northland player.

Conference leading setter Kati Berscheit had 37 set assists for the Saints as she fed eight different teammates for at least one kill in the match.

Defensively, junior captain Diana Moody had 13 digs for the Saints while Udermann and sophomore Erin Niles each had two and a half blocks.