Volleyball 10/20/06 -- Macalester 3, Augsburg 2 (27-30, 27-30, 31-29, 30-25, 15-10)

BOXSCORE

ST. PAUL, Minn. (10/20/06) -- Down two games to none and trailing 28-25 in game three, the Macalester College Scots rallied for a come-from-behind 3-2 win at home over Augsburg College to keep their hopes alive for a berth in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference volleyball post-season playoffs on Friday night.

Game scores in this hard-fought marathon were 27-30, 27-30, 31-29, 30-25 and 15-10. Macalester improves to 12-10 overall and 5-5 in the MIAC. Augsburg falls to 9-17 on the season, 1-9 in the MIAC.

It was nearly a three-game sweep for the visitors. Augsburg trailed 27-23 in game one before turning the tables with a 7-0 run to close out the game. In game two, Augsburg led 28-27 and put things away on kills by Sarah Bradley (Jr., International Falls, Minn.) and Barbara Simmons (Fr., Minneapolis, Minn./South HS). Then in the third game, a game close throughout, Augsburg led 28-25 before the Scots battled back to win 31-29 with a crucial 6-1 run.

The fourth game was also close, with Macalester pulling away after leading 26-23. Mac jumped out top of the fifth and decisive game 7-3 and held on.

Augsburg was led by Katie LaGrave (Jr., Okinawa, Japan/Kadena HS), with 19 kills, six digs and four blocks (one solo). Simmons had 11 kills and four blocks. Julie Jenkins (So., Edina, Minn.) had six kills, 15 assists, 10 digs and six blocks. Dani Boner (So., Omaha, Neb./Mercy HS) had 10 kills and 21 digs. Bradley collected 10 kills and 13 digs.

Haley Bower (Jr., Brainerd, Minn.) had 29 digs for the Auggies. Shanna Reed (Fr., Eagan, Minn./Holy Angels HS) had 11 assists, and Dani Tanaka (Fr., Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson HS) had nine digs.

Kari Tanaka (Jr., Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson HS)distributed a career-high 60 assists to help the Scots hit at a .309 clip. Kate Fahje (Jr., Waukesha, Wis./East HS) served five aces, Marisa Raether (Jr., San Marino, Calif.) served three.

Sonia Muzikarova (So., Bratislava, Slovakia/Gymnazium Bilikova) had 20 kills and Andrea Hansen (Sr., Andover, Minn./Anoka HS) added 19 to lead the way at the net for the Scots. Hansen had a .615 hitting percentage. Lauren Eberhart (Sr., Madelia, Minn) added 19 kills.

Augsburg hosts North Central (Minn.) in a nonconference match on Monday (10/23) at 7 p.m. at Si Melby Hall. Macalester hosts Bethel in its regular-season finale on Wednesday (10/25) at 7 p.m.