(ST. NORBERT COMMUNICATIONS) DE PERE – St. Norbert College opened the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament with a 3-1 win over Benedictine University at Mulva Family Fitness and Sports Center.
The Green Knights (19-13) topped the Eagles 29-27, 25-17, 23-25, 25-15 to advance to the conference semifinals on Thursday.
Benedictine took an early 4-1 lead, but a 9-2 run from St. Norbert put the Green Knights up 10-6 thanks to kills from Anna Kudick and Mari Szews. After leading by two near the end of the set, the Eagles would go on a run themselves to put the visitors up 23-21. Alyssa Mills then recorded three kills to give St. Norbert a 25-24 lead. The set saw several more ties before a kill from Kudick and an attack error gave St. Norbert a hard earned 29-27 set win.
The Green Knights were able to stay in front from wire to wire in the second set, with the Eagles only being able to come within five points of the lead. Kills from Alli Clark (pictured) and Casey Vaughan helped St. Norbert go on a 6-2 run to end the set, giving the Green Knights a 2-0 lead.
Another close set in the third would be the only one the Eagles would prevail in, taking the set 25-23. The third set featured ten lead changes, and despite a late St. Norbert surge, the Green Knights could not get the sweep.
The fourth set was tight at the start, but the Green Knights were able to pull away late. The set was tied at 13-13 until St. Norbert went on a monster 12-2 run to end the game. Clark had five of the 12 kills in the run.
St. Norbert hit .300, with 70 kills and six errors in 180 swings. Alyssa Mills had 22 kills, while Clark had 20 and Szews had 11. Heidi Colburn added 54 assists to her tally, while Kara Sowinski had 19 digs.
Mills, Szews and Colburn all had one block apiece.
Benedictine hit .221, with 50 kills and 12 errors on 172 attempts. Olivia McPherson led the Eagles with 16 kills.
St. Norbert will face Concordia University Wisconsin in the semifinal round on the road in Mequon. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start on Thursday.
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