09/29/07

The Saints and Bethany Lutheran College played an epic match to close out the UMAC Crossover for each team on Saturday afternoon in Ashland, Wis., but it was the Vikings (5-14, 2-2 UMAC) who would deal St. Scholastica (8-11, 3-1 UMAC) their first conference loss in a wild 3-2 defeat.

The two teams battled nearly point by point in the first two games of the match but Bethany stole both, winning 32-30 and 31-29 to push the Saints to the edge of defeat.

Resolve fought back in for the Saints players as they bounced back to even the match 2-2 with 30-19 and 31-29 wins in the third and penultimate fourth game.

Bethany got the best of the Saints, though, in the match finale as they closed out the win with a 15-8 victory.

Shawna Varichak recorded 27 kills to lead the match and re-set her career best total only a week after registering a then-best 26 in a five-game loss to NYU at the Millikin Classic in Decatur, Ill.

Senior teammate Alissa Johnson had 19 more kills for the Saints, not only setting a personal career best but also reaching double-figures in kills for the first time in her four year history with the Saints.

Junior Kati Berscheit, who has been battling an elbow injury for much of the past three weeks, had 30 assists while having to share time in the setter's role with Megan Baartman who added 25 more assists for the Saints in their tough loss.

Middle blocker Erin Niles came alive at the net for the Saints totaling 5.0 blocks in the match, surpassing her total of 3.5 over the first three matches of the Crossover.

Still, the career-highs, shared setter responsibilities, and 11.0 to 6.0 advantage in blocks weren't enough as the Saints finally dropped their first UMAC match of the season.

They closed out the conference Crossover with a 3-1 record.