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St. Scholastica Upsets #10 Wis.-Oshkosh To Complete Saturday Sweep
Story and Photo Courtesy of the St. Scholastica Athletics Site
DULUTH, Minn. – The St. Scholastica volleyball team hung
on to upset 10th-ranked University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in five
sets after defeating Presentation College earlier in the day on
Saturday at Reif Gym.
The Saints (21-6, 9-0 UMAC) began the day by sweeping Presentation
College (1-18, 1-9 UMAC) in three sets (25-8, 25-16, 25-16) in 55
minutes. Every healthy Saints saw action, including Cortney
Rykken (Babbitt, Minn./Babbitt-Embarrass HS), who earlier
in the morning participated in women’s hockey practice.
Anna
Zyvoloski (Sauk Rapids, Minn./St. Cloud Cathedral HS
(Minn.-Duluth)) had 11 kills to lead the team. Paige Hardy
(Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing HS) and Brittany
Oakman (Virginia, Minn./Virginia HS) added six kills
apiece. Mariah Sis
(Ramsey, Minn./Anoka HS) had 23 set assists and Nikki Hughes
(Lake Nebagamon, Wis./Northwestern HS) had a team-high 17
digs.
The Saints are 9-0 in conference play and the only other time in
program history they finished unbeaten in conference play was way
back in 1984. This is also the sixth 20-win season under Coach Dana
Moore and the first since the 2006 season.
The 10th-ranked Titans (21-5) came in for the second match after
defeating UW-Superior in Superior earlier in the day.
The Saints started out hot, recording the first five points of the
opening set. The Titans would struggle in the set and the Saints
took advantage with a .412 hitting percentage, compared to .036 for
the Titans. CSS cruised to a 25-16 set win.
After trailing early in the second set, the Saints eventually took
the lead midway through and finished on an 8-3 run to win
25-19.
Set No. 3 was the best set of the match for Oshkosh as they never
trailed to win 25-16. St. Scholastica then had a chance to close
out the Titans in the fourth set, leading 19-16. However, with the
score 23-23, Oshkosh took the final two points to force a
fifth-and-deciding set, 25-23.
The young Saints squad would not buckle under the pressure against
a nationally-ranked team as they never trailed in the fifth set.
Paige Hardy would get the final three points for the Saints by way
of kills to make the final score 15-13.
Hardy led the team with 19 kills, followed by Anna Zyvoloski with
13 kills. Taylor Tyllia
(Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS) added seven kills. Sarah
Kurtovich (Andover, Minn./Andover HS) had 41 set assists.
Nikki Hughes had a season-high 28 digs, just missing a career-high
by one.
The Saints are on the road the rest of the regular season and they
begin with a trip to Martin Luther on Friday and Bethany Lutheran
on Saturday. In addition to playing the Vikings on Saturday, the
Saints will also square off against Coe College (Iowa) in
Mankato.
