Volleyball 9/24/03 -- St. Benedict 3, Augsburg 0

BOXSCORE

MINNEAPOLIS (9/24/03) -- Claire Loesch (Jr., Kimball, Minn./St. Cloud Cathedral HS) had 12 kills and 10 blocks (one solo) to lead the College of St. Benedict to a three-game sweep of host Augsburg College in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference volleyball match Wednesday night at Augsburg's Si Melby Hall.

Game scores were 30-25, 30-16, 30-21 in favor of the Blazers, who improved to 6-7 overall and 1-2 in MIAC play. Augsburg drops to 2-12 overall and 0-2 in MIAC play.

The Blazers played a strong game at the net to earn the victory, compiling 12 total team blocks and converting 49 kills at a .296 attack percentage clip. St. Benedict also took advantage of a poor Augsburg attacking night, as the Auggies hit just .066 -- 36 kills with 28 attack errors in 121 attempts.

Augsburg's best hope for victory came in the first game, as the hosts built an 18-10 lead behind three kills apiece from Linnea Evans (So., Kenyon, Minn./Kenyon-Wanamingo HS) and Elsie Ginsberg (Fr., St. Paul, Minn./Central HS).

But the Blazers rallied, scoring 10 of the next 11 points to take a 20-19 lead. Loesch had two kills and two blocks in the run. The teams tied the match three more times, before St. Benedict pulled away with five straight points to close the initial game.

The Blazers dominated the second game and took advantage of Augsburg mistakes, as the hosts had 13 attack errors (hitting a negative-.042). St. benedict had five service aces, four team blocks and 11 kills in the second game -- five by Loesch. An 18-5 run midway through the second game gave the visitors a 28-15 commanding lead.

St. Benedict converted more of the same in the final game, hiting a strong .529 -- 21 kills with just three attack errors in 34 attempts. Joquel Rudningen (Sr., Sunburg, Minn./KMS HS) had five kills in the final game, while Wolford had four kills and two blocks. Loesch had three kills and five blocks.

In the match, Wolford had 10 kills, eight digs and four blocks. Rudningen had eight kills, hitting .417. She added three service aces and three blocks. Beth Schiller (So., Detroit Lakes, Minn.) had 36 assists, six digs, three blocks, three aces and five kills in the match. Clarey McKeown (Fr., Montevideo, Minn.) had six kills, hitting .312, and six digs. Laura Zwach (Fr., Walnut Grove, Minn./Tracy Area HS) led the Blazers with 13 digs.

Augsburg was paced by Ginsberg, who had 10 kills. Evans and Kristy Larson (Jr., Pine Island, Minn.) had eight kills apiece, with Larson adding two blocks and three digs and Evans scoring seven digs.

Alexis Johnson (So., Oakdale, Minn./North St. Paul HS) had 29 assists and four digs, and Britt Bogner (So., Burnsville, Minn./Apple Valley HS) had seven digs. Augsburg converted just three team blocks in the match.

Both teams return to MIAC play on Friday (9/26) at 7:30 p.m. in Northfield, Minn., as Augsburg plays at Carleton and St. Benedict plays at St. Olaf.