On Sept. 26, the St. Olaf volleyball team traveled to St. Paul to take the fight to the Scots of Macalester College, losing 2-3 in a heated five-set match.
St. Olaf was able to muster wins in the first and third sets, with Macalester winning the second set and then consecutively winning the final two sets of the match to secure their victory. The Oles came out swinging with a 25-15 win in the first set, while the second set was a close fight until Macalester pulled through and defeated the Oles 25-21. St. Olaf found victory in the third set with a 25-18 win, coming back from a seven-point deficit over the Scots. Macalester then went on to win the fourth set 25-15 and subsequently won the ensuing tiebreaker set by three points for a final score of 15-12. The loss to Macalester puts St. Olaf at an overall record of 8 wins and 10 losses, and Macalester at 12 wins and 3 losses. Both teams remain below .500 within the MIAC however, with St. Olaf winless (0-3) and Macalester sitting with 1 win and 2 losses.
There were several notable performances during the match; the 1st and 3rd sets, won by the Oles, were led by Megan Grimes ’19, who had a team high 17 kills. Grimes has potential to become one of the Oles’ biggest stars in years considering her strong performances so far this season.
Junior Lexie Read ’17 also had an impressive 0.310 hitting percentage, leading the Oles. The defense was led by Abby Slack ’17 with 24 digs, while junior Sophie Schwart ’17 was credited with four blocks. The Macalester standout was Clara Baumann who achieved an astounding 23 kills in the match. The next game for the Oles will be in Skoglund Center this coming Friday at 7 p.m., when they will square off against Concordia College (Moorhead) in what should be a closely contested matchup between two teams hoping to gain solid footing in a tough MIAC conference.
