ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The St. Catherine University volleyball team snapped their losing streak taking a five set battle from Hamline University for the team's conference opener at Butler Center Gym. The 3-2 win improves St. Kate's to 9-6 with a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) record of 1-0.
The night started with honoring senior
Lexie Petrick for reaching 1,000 career digs on September 14 against University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. After this evenings match, Petrick now has 1,040 career digs and ranks seventh in program history as the team has 12 regular season matches remaining.
Petrick continued her impressive senior campaign tallying a double double with a match best 16 kills along with her 14 digs. She also recorded three blocks in the match scoring 18.5 points. Senior
Brenna Essig also had a night delivering a career best 29 digs with three aces and two assists in the match. The third Wildcat to have a career night was senior
Lucia Neumann who had a career high 40 assists in addition to her 12 digs, two aces, and one kill.
It was a slow start for the Wildcats as the Pipers had a 15-4 lead in the first set. St. Kate's rallied back though with Essig at the service line getting the team within four points at 22-18 before Hamline took the set at 25-18.
Set two was back and forth until the Pipers took advantage of a string of errors from the Wildcats taking a five point lead at 17-12. The Wildcats fought back though rallying to a 26-24 win to make it 1-1 in the match. It was the same story again in set three as St. Kate's found themselves behind early to then inch back to get within four at 22-17. Hamline didn't give up though taking set three 25-20.
The fourth set was a different story though as St. Kate's came out strong with a six point advantage before allowing the Pipers to take a lead at 18-17. Essig took advantage at the service line again getting St. Kate's ahead at 20-19 while
Mallory Johnson sealed the set at 25-22.
The momentum carried into the final set for St. Kate's getting to 12-6 but the Pipers again inched back to get down one before the match went in favor of the Wildcats 15-13.
St. Kate's continues their MIAC schedule on Saturday as they travel to College of Saint Benedict for a 5 pm match against the Bennies. St. Kate's returns to the Butler Center on Friday, August 4 facing Augsburg University at 7 pm.
