EAU CLAIRE, Wis. -- The St. Catherine University volleyball team improved to 8-2 with a three set sweep of Marian University on Friday afternoon at the Sandy Schumacher Memorial Tournament hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. 

The Wildcats were led by juniors Liz Rosen and Mallory Johnson tallying nine kills each with senior Lexie Petrick producing 20 digs to Rosen's 16. Senior Brenna Essig posted 14 digs to go with her four aces. 
As a team, St. Kate's hit .205 with 39 kills, eleven aces, 66 digs and three blocks. Marian hit just .165 with 36 kills, two aces, 64 digs and two blocks. 

The first set started evenly before St. Kate's began to pull away with Essig contributing several service aces. Marian struggled with attack and service errors allowing the Wildcats to widen the game. In the final stretch, Essig continued to dominate at the service line with Johnson sealing the set with a kill to win 25-18. 

Set two was back and forth with Marian capitalizing on the Wildcats errors to stay in the match. St. Kate's dominated again at the service line as Rosen's attack allowed the Wildcats to regain control. Despite a late surge by Marian, St. Kate's secured the win 25-22. 

In the final set, Marian gained a 7-1 lead early before Rosen and Johnson helped cut the deficit getting the score to 15-12. St. Kate's gained the lead at 21-20 after taking advantage of Marian errors with the match finishing with a kill from Petrick. 

St. Kate's will face the Univresity of Chicago for the first-time in program history in Eau Claire scheduled for 2 pm. The Wildcats close out the tournament with a 6 pm scheduled match against tournament hosts, UW-Eau Claire with both matches played at the Sonnentag Center.