10/16/07

It took a while for St. Scholastica (13-14) to get going in Tuesday night’s non-conference volleyball match-up against visiting UW-Stout (10-13), but once they started rolling the Saints kept the Blue Devils at a distance throughout their three consecutive wins and captured the match by a 3-1 margin.

The opening game was tied as late as 19-19 before Stout pulled away for a 30-22 win. With game two at 10-9 in favor of the Blue Devils, the Saints reeled off 10 points in a row with Shawna Varichak serving to open up a lead that they maintained to the end of their 30-21 win.

The Saints led from the start in game three and with the score at 17-9 and St. Scholastica’s Megan Baartman now serving, they opened up a 24-9 lead and steamrolled the Blue Devils 30-13 to go up 2-1 in the match and place themselves one win away from their second win over Stout this season.

Early in the year the two teams met at the Reif Gymnasium where the Blue Devils would hold a 2-1 lead over St. Scholastica before the Saints would rally for a 3-2 win.

With the shoe now on the other foot Tuesday night, Stout rallied in the fourth, taking an 18-16 lead before the Saints would jump back on top 20-19. With freshman Molly Roith serving, St. Scholastica would go on one last streak for the evening in taking a 28-19 lead before closing out the match with a 30-23 victory.

Amy Thompson led the Saints with 16 kills while Maggie Meixl from Stout recorded a match-high 17 kills.

Baartman had 25 set assists for St. Scholastica, splitting time with Kati Berscheit who added in 20 more. Jenna Welsh had 37 set assists for Stout in their losing effort.

Defensively, the Saints had 10.0 team blocks to only 3.0 by Stout. Niles had seven block assists for St. Scholastica and Alissa Johnson chipped in with four block assists.