10/13/07

In a match between the two teams tied for second place in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference standings, visiting Bethany Lutheran College (11-14, 7-2 UMAC) grabbed sole possession of the runner-up spot with a 3-1 victory over the host Saints (12-14, 6-3 UMAC) in St. Scholastica’s Reif Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.

The loss drops St. Scholastica into a third place tie with Northland College who are also 6-3 within the conference, though the Saints did defeat the LumberJills just this past Wednesday evening.

Following an opening game 30-27 win by the Vikings, the Saints stormed back with a 30-17 victory in game two that evened the match at a game apiece and seemed to display a strong momentum switch in favor of the home team.

But Bethany Lutheran broke out to a 10 point lead midway through game three before eventually downing the Saints 30-22, and then fought off a late St. Scholastica rally in game four, winning the match with a 30-26 victory.

The Saints had a strong day at the net defensively registering 11.0 blocks, led by Dustie Richardson’s two solo and five block assists, but Bethany Lutheran bettered the Saints with 15.0 blocks. Leslie Bremer totaled four solo blocks and four block assists for the visitors while Eva Voss added a pair of solo blocks and three block assists in the win.

Shawna Varichak’s 17 kills led the Saints offensively while Bremer had a match-high 18 kills for the victorious Vikings.

The defeat ends a four-match win streak for St. Scholastica, but they get an opportunity to start another streak when they welcome UW-Stout to the Reif on Tuesday night, October 16, in a rematch with a Blue Devil squad that they defeated 3-2 earlier in the season on the same Reif floor.