Box Score
After struggling last weekend in non-conference tournament play, the St. Catherine University volleyball team was looking for a little confidence and to play well overall as a team.
The Wildcats got just what the doctor ordered as they pulled off a tough 3-1 win over Carleton College to open up Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play on Wednesday evening.
Heading into its first home contest, St. Catherine had struggled in converting attacks into points and in the service game, an area where the Wildcats are usually very strong.
Tonight was a different story, though, as the team racked up eight service aces and hit .209 as a team, which was one of the best team totals all season.
The Wildcats appeared to come out strong in the first set as they had an early eight-point lead over the Knights. As they would continue to do all night though, the Knights battled back to keep the set interesting. St. Catherine managed to take the first set 25-21 to go up early 1-0.
However, the Wildcats were plagued by attacking and serving errors in the second set and struggled to find an answer to Carleton's offensive attack. The Knights evened the score at one a piece with a 25-17 second-set win.
The third set was a back-and-forth battle that eventually ended in a 29-27 win for the Wildcats. In the fourth set, the Wildcats came together as a team after being down early 7-11 to come up with a 25-22 win to end the match.
Leading the way for the Wildcats was the senior trio of
Brittni Wangerin (Prior Lake, Minn),
Kelsey Wirtanen (Hibbing, Minn.) and
Marie O'Neil (St. Michael, Minn.). Wangerin was the teams serving ace as she picked up six of the team's eight total aces in the match. She also led the team in kills (16) and was second in digs (17).
Wirtanen picked up 12 kills and hit .356 on the evening. She also chipped in 16 digs. O'Neil continued to show her dominance at the net as she was a part of six of the team's seven blocks. She also turned in 12 kills, four digs and one assist.
Wildcat first-years
Miranda Krenske (Faribault, Minn.) and
Zoe Barr (River Falls, Wis.) also managed to contribute in big ways to the team's big win. Krenske finished the night with six kills, three block-assists and two digs, while Barr turned in a team-high .429 attacking percentage.
Ashley Kahlow (LeSueur, Minn.) and
Karsee Knutson (New London, Minn.) tallied a majority of the team's 56 assists with 35 and 14, respectively. Senior libero
Nicole Pothen (Faribault, Minn.) led the team in digs with 23.
The Wildcats take a break from MIAC play, but return to the
Butler Center for the annual St. Kate's Invitational beginning this Friday, Sept. 14. The Wildcats take on Crown (5 p.m.) and UW-Stout (7 p.m.). On day two of the tournament, the Wildcats face-off against Bethany Lutheran (12 p.m.) and Luther (2 p.m.).
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