Box Score After a 1-1 outing on the opening day of it's home St. Kate's Invite tournament, the St. Catherine University volleyball team hoped to pick up another win to end the weekend against a strong UW-Stout squad. Despite taking the first and third sets, the Wildcats couldn't find a way to close out the fourth set or the win in dropping a five-set heartbreaker 3-2 (8-25, 25-14, 21-25, 25-23, 18-16) Saturday at the Butler Center. 

The Wildcats roared out to a great start in the first set collecting 12 kills and hitting .209 as a team and forcing UW-Stout to a .019 hitting percentage. The Wildcats then allowed UW-Stout to dominate the second set, before coming back to life in the third. The Wildcats and the Blue Devils then matched each other nearly point-for-point in the fourth before UW-Stout managed to get two in a row to take the fourth and force a deciding fifth set in which the Wildcats couldn't out-edge their opponent. 

Megan Lindenfelser (Nowthen, Minn./Anoka) dominated offensively for the Wildcats collecting a career-high and match-best 19 kills with just four errors for a solid .341 hitting performance. She also collected nine digs, two block assists and a service ace to round out her all-tournament team performance on the weekend. 

Karsee Knutson (New London, Minn./New London-Spicer) also nabbed a spot on the all-tournament team after she set up the offense with 32 assists, 19 digs and a service ace, while Ashley Kahlow (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson) tallied 21 assists, three service aces and four digs. 

Maddy Mullins (Caledonia, Minn./Caledonia) also had a season and career-best hitting performance with 16 kills, as well as 10 digs and a block assist. Alyssa Besch (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) also had another strong day picking up 12 kills, four block assists, three digs and a service ace. 

Amber Zeiher (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson) was again a force in the middle with five kills, four block assists and a solo block. Shanee Herd (Alexandria, Minn./Jefferson) led the team defensively with 26 digs. 

With the loss, the Wildcats fall to 9-8 on the season. They return to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play against St. Olaf College. The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in Northfield, Minnesota. 

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