NORTHFIELD, MINN. – The St. Catherine University volleyball team was riding high entering Wednesday evening's game against St. Olaf College. The Wildcats were coming off a perfect weekend where they claimed their first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) win of the season. Unfortunately, St. Kate's couldn't extend its winning streak to three matches, as the team suffered a 3-0 (18-25, 16-25, 18-25) loss to the Oles.

The Wildcats battled for three sets but were unfortunately unable to overcome the St. Olaf attack. St. Kate's actually hit .182 in the opening set, thanks to four kills apiece from right side Mackenzie Peper (Osceola, Wis. / Osceola) and left side Libby Kreuser (White Bear Lake, Minn. / Totino-Grace). Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to counter the Oles, who hit .423 in the first set with 14 kills and just three errors.

After dropping the first set 25-18, the Wildcats roared back to life and took an early 3-0 lead in the second. Meagan Schwarzrock (Hutchinson, Minn. / Hutchinson) was strong behind the service line during the run with an ace but an unfortunately error allowed St. Olaf to score its first point. Still, St. Kate's two of the next three points, extending its lead to 5-2 before the Oles evened things up at 5-5.

The two teams traded the lead for the next few points before St. Olaf took a 13-9 lead. Hannah Flatness (Elk River, Wis. / Elk River) managed to stop the bleeding with a kill and cut the lead to 13-10, but the Wildcats were never quite able to get the momentum back on their side, as the Oles took the second set 25-16.

St. Kate's hoped to force a fourth set by winning the third, but that unfortunately wasn't in the cards Wednesday evening. The Wildcats managed to keep things close at the start of the third set, despite falling behind 3-0. Emma Nelson (Byron, Minn. / Byron) served St. Kate's back into the set with a three-point serving run, and the Wildcats hung in there with St. Olaf through the next five points. Unfortunately, St. Kate's hit a bit of a rough patch on serve receive, allowing the Oles to jump ahead 19-13.

The Wildcats did managed to cut the lead to 23-18 in the latter stages of the set. Emily Neumann (Duluth, Minn. / Hermantown) and Payton Baker (Forest Lake, Minn. / Forest Lake) single handedly cut St. Olaf's lead to five points with Kreuser back to serve. However, the Oles offense was just too much for St. Kate's to overcome, as St. Olaf took the third and final set 25-18.

Kreuser and Peper led the team with seven kills, while Schwarzrock guided the offense with 11 assists. Sophomore libero Larissa Kisch (Oakdale, Minn. / Cretin-Derham Hall) tallied a team leading 10 digs in the loss.

With the loss, the Wildcats overall record falls to 8-12 and the team in 1-6 in MIAC play. St. Kate's will return to the court on Friday when it hosts Northland College at 6 p.m. in the Butler Center Gym.