ST. PAUL, MINN. – It was a senior night Shanee Herd (Alexandria, Minn. / Jefferson) and Abby Palmer (Pequot Lakes, Minn. / Pequot Lakes) will never forget.

The two seniors have led the St. Catherine University volleyball team through the entire 2016 season. On Wednesday night, in the last home match of their careers, Herd and Palmer led St. Kate's to its first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) win of the season. The Wildcats dominated Macalester College in a 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-13) sweep to earn their first conference win of the season.

From the get go, St. Kate's was firing on all cylinders in every facet of the game.  Starting setter Larissa Kisch (Oakdale, Minn. / Cretin-Derham Hall) was dominant from the serving line and opened the match with a four point serving run. That run was all the Wildcats needed to take a lead it would never relinquish and jump start a dominant performance on offense. St. Kate's hit .159 in the opening set, led by Libby Kreuser's (White Bear Lake, Minn. / Totino-Grace) seven kills in nine attempts from the middle.

The Wildcats also had four different servers go on multiple runs. Herd went on a five point serving run to help St. Kate's jump ahead 15-7 lead and Palmer gave the Wildcats a 20-9 lead with a three point run of her own.

The Scots managed a small three point run when St. Kate's went up 24-11, but Mackenzie Peper (Osceola, Wis. / Osceola) sealed the 25-14 first set victory with a kill on the right side from Emily Neumann (Duluth, Minn. / Hermantown).

After dominating in the first set, the Wildcats looked like they would cruise to a second set victory. However, Macalester put up a fight in the second set, matching St. Kate's point for point through the first half of the match. When Kisch went back behind the service line, though, it looked like the set was over. The first year went on a four-point run to give the Wildcats their first lead of the set 14-10.

The Scots answered with a four point run of their own to take a 15-14 lead over St. Kate's. It was the last time, though, the Wildcats would ever trail. A kill from Kreuser gave St. Kate's a 24-20 lead, and the team won the set with a block from Kelly Breuer (St. Paul, Minn. / St. Croix Lutheran) and Kreuser.

The third set started nearly the same as the first. Kisch served the Wildcats to a 5-0 lead before surrendered a point to Macalester. Then, after the Scots closed the gap to 5-2, Palmer extended the lead to 11-2 with two aces. Once again, that nine point lead was all St. Kate's needed to win the set, as its defense held Macalester to a -.062 hitting percentage on the way to a 25-13 third set victory.

The Wildcats combined for 38 kills in the three set effort, with Kisch assisting on over half the kills. Kreuser led the team with 11 kills and a .435 hitting percentage while Palmer and Peper each added six.

St. Kate's was just as strong on defense as it was on offense. Herd continued to be the defensive catalyst, as she led the team in digs with 17, bringing her season total to 654 and career total to 2184.

The 3-0 sweep of the Scots resulted in the Wildcats first MIAC win of the 2016 season and the team's first sweep since October 1. St. Kate's overall record also improves to 13-14 as it moves up the conference ranks with a 1-7 record in MIAC play.  

"This was a good win," head coach Corey Phelps said after the match. "Now we need to carry this momentum and energy into Saturday."

Although the Wildcats home season is over, the team still has three key road matches to end the season. In fact, the Saturday Phelps is referring to is this upcoming Saturday, when the Wildcats will take on MIAC leader Augsburg College. First serve is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Augsburg.