10/29/06

Northwestern College and St. Scholastica battled it out on the Eagles’ home court in St. Paul Saturday afternoon in the final UMAC regular season contest for each team. It was Northwestern, though, who came away with the win in a heart-breaking, five-game loss for the Saints.

Northwestern eked out a pair of wins in the matches initial games – by three points in game one and four in game two – but the Saints would not go down without a fight. Knowing another loss would seal the win for Northwestern, the Saints came back to squeak out a win in the third game, 31-29. They kept the momentum with a nine point win in game four, the largest winning margin in the match.

In the deciding fifth game, the Eagles simply registered more kills than the Saints which they eventually won 15-13, capping the 3-2 victory over the Saints. 

The St. Scholastica attack was not far behind Northwestern’s throughout the match. Reaching double digits in kills for the Saints were LeAnn Bercheit (19), Amy Thompson (17), and Erin Niles (10). Kati Bercheit led the match with 48 set assists and Thompson led the Saints with four service aces.

Though on the losing end, the Saints’ defense challenged the Eagles’ attacks. At the net, St. Scholastica—led by Niles and team career block leader LeAnn Berscheit—had 17 blocks while the Eagles had 9.5. On the floor, defensive specialist Diana Moody led the Saints with a team high 22 defensive digs.

With their third place finish in the regular season conference standings, St. Scholastica now advances to the UMAC post-season tournament. Martin Luther College, Bethany Lutheran College and Presentation College are the other UMAC tournament participants with Martin Luther earning the No. 1 seed by virtue of their first place regular-season conference standing.