MADISON, Wis. – The Edgewood College volleyball team put together a solid three sets in sweeping Benedictine University on Friday night in front of a home crowd at the Edgedome. Edgewood College made a strong comeback in the first set and then rolled to a 25-18, 25-11, 25-17 Senior Night win to move to 6-2 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference.
Benedictine University (7-19, 5-4 NACC) appeared to be the stronger Eagle early on racing out to a 9-3 lead and forcing an Edgewood College timeout. Edgewood College regrouped behind the serve of Macalah Finstad, scoring on a block by Savannah Koester and Sarah Schuchhardt, and kills by Jordan Winkler and Koester to take a 12-11 lead. Edgewood College (15-11, 6-2 NACC) trailed again briefly at 15-14, but a block by Renee Meister and Carley Reuter put the Edgewood College ahead for good. Reuter finished the set with a kill.
Set two looked close at 11-8 after Benedictine scored a kill by Erin Wiegand. However Edgewood College went on a monster run, ultimately scoring the final nine points of the set on the serve of Rachel Tesch. Reuter and Meister each had two kills to go with two service aces from Tesch, the last of which ended the second set. The third set was all about the ace, as the Eagles scored eight service aces, including three by Koester. Senior Rachel Thomsen scored two aces as Edgewood College used a 12-5 run to end the match.
Elizabeth Evans ended up as Edgewood College's kill leader with seven. Winkler and Reuter each had six kills, with Reuther not committing an error. Schuchhardt led the team in attack percentage, hitting .500 on five kills. Rachel Thomsen led the team in both assists with 14 and digs with 12. The Eagles posted five blocks, with four of them being assisted efforts from Meister and Reuter. Edgewood College hit .244 for the match.
Benedictine University was led by Weigand who had eight kills. Abby Screnock had 17 assists and Caitlyn Martin and Andraia Leja compiled eight digs each. Edgewood College held Benedictine University to just an .043 attack percentage.
Edgewood College strengthens their hold on third place in the NACC with the win. The Eagles will be home for a key NACC match tomorrow at noon, when they host Aurora University, who also shares third place at the Edgedome. The Eagles will also play Augustana College (Ill.) at 4:00 p.m.
