ST. PAUL, MINN. – Shanee Herd (Alexandria, Minn. / Jefferson) has spent the last four years with the St. Catherine University volleyball team establishing herself as one of the best liberos in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). After Saturday afternoon, Herd can argue she's one of the best defensive players in the history of St. Kate's volleyball. The senior broke the school record for career digs in the Wildcats thrilling 3-1 (19-25, 26-24, 25-15, 28-26) win over the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and helped St. Kate's go 2-0 in its home tri-tournament with an opening 3-0 (25-5, 25-23, 25-15) sweep of Crown College.

"Today was huge for us," head coach Corey Phelps said after the match. It was great for our confidence moving forward. We were able to play everyone and win a big four-set match against UW-River Falls."

Herd wasn't the only player to have an outstanding day on the court for the Wildcats. In fact, St. Kate's spectacular play started in its first match of the day when it dominated Crown in its first sweep since mid-September. While the Wildcats have struggled in the opening set of matches this season, the team won 11 straight points at the start of the set, thanks to strong serving from setter Johna Radka (Musekgo, Wis. / Muskego). The sophomore had one ace and forced 10 Storm attack errors during her 11-point run, allowing St. Kate's to jump to an 11-0 lead.

Offensively, the Wildcats were on fire in the first set, winning 14 of the first 15 points in the set. The team hit .346, its best single-setting average of the season, with nine kills and no errors in 26 attempts.  The Wildcats defense gave up its lowest point total of the season, as Crown scored only five points in the entire set with just two kills.

As Herd closed out the 25-5 set victory with an ace, St. Kate's was looking at its first opportunity to sweep an opponent in five matches. However, the Storm showed resiliency in the second set and took an 8-5 lead in the set. The Wildcats managed to close the gap, tying the set at 11-11 with a service error from Crown libero Taylor Urcuyo.

St. Kate's eventually took a 20-16 lead with a monster kill from Bailey Brownlee (Buffalo, Minn. / Buffalo) in the middle. The Wildcats looked to close out the set, but two Storm kills and a setting error by Emily Neumann (Duluth, Minn. / Hermantown) cut St. Kate's lead to 20-19. From there, the back and forth play ensued, and Crown eventually took a 23-22 lead with costly attacking errors by the Wildcats. Determined not to let the match go beyond three sets, St. Kate's won the next three points to win the second set 25-23.

With the close second set behind them, the Wildcats won the third set 25-15, earning their first straight-set sweep since September 15.

St. Kate's saved its most thrilling match for last Saturday afternoon. The Wildcats were hoping for their second straight set win of the day against UW-River Falls. However, after dropping the first set 25-19, St. Kate's knew it needed to play at least four sets to win the match outright. The team played that way in the second set, jumping out to a 15-10 thanks to a strong serving game and timely hitting. Still, the Falcons were not about to disappear from the match and wasted no time cutting the Wildcats lead to 15-14.

St. Kate's managed to keep UW-River Falls at bay by for the next 10 points, this time with strong serving from Larissa Kisch (Oakdale, Minn. / Cretin-Derham Hall) and kills from Libby Kreuser (White Bear Lake, Minn. / Totino-Grace) and Kelly Breuer (St. Paul, Minn. / St. Croix Lutheran). Then, the Falcons got hot, winning five straight points to take a 23-22 lead.

A kill from Abby Palmer (Pequot Lakes, Minn. / Pequot Lakes) tied the game at 23 but UW-River Falls reclaimed the lead on the very next point. With the set on the line, Mackenzie Peper (Osceola Wis. / Osceola) hit a kill from the right side, and Herd put the set away with two tough serves to clinch the match for St. Kate's 26-24.

The Falcons tried to regain control of the match with a third set victory by jumping out to a 6-4 lead. However, once the Wildcats caught up to the visitors, there was no stopping them. With UW-River Falls threatening to tie the match at 15, Bailey Auseth (Wanamingo, Minn. / Kenyon-Wanamingo) went on a three-point serving run to give St. Kate's a 18-14 cushion. Then, Kreuser closed out the set with a seven-point run of her own to give the Wildcats a 2-1 set lead with a 25-15 win in the third set.

Herd, who played spectacular defense in both matches, took over in the fourth set, racking up 18 digs in the final set of the afternoon. With her second dig of the set, Herd broke Nicole Neumann's nine-year record for career digs (2007) and has accumulated 2040 digs in her time at St. Kate's. 

However, Herd didn't just stop with two digs. She racked up 16 more in the fourth set, bringing her match total to 34, to help St. Kate's come from behind and win the fourth and final set 28-26.

Hannah Flatness (Elk Mound, Wis. / Elk Mound) and Palmer led the team in kills against River Falls with 14 and 13 kills respectively. Radke racked up 22 assists while Kisch added 21.

With the two wins, the Wildcats improve their overall record to 10-10 and have a 6-3 record in the Butler Center Gym. The team's next match will take place on the road, when it travels to the Northwestern University (St. Paul) for a tri-tournament on Tuesday, October 4. St. Kate's will play Bethany Lutheran at 5:30 p.m. and No. 25 Northwestern at 7 p.m.