MADISON, Wis. – The Edgewood College volleyball team solidified their position in the NACC standings and became winners of 10 of their last 11 matches with two wins at the Edgedome on Saturday. The Eagles grabbed soled possession of third place in the NACC with a wild 25-20, 28-26, 25-27, 25-22 victory over Aurora University, and then defeated Augustana College (Ill.) 25-23, 19-25, 25-17, 25-20 in a non-conference match.
The Eagles and Aurora University (20-10, 6-3 NACC) entered their match in a tie for third place, but Edgewood College emerged the winner after a number of strange turns of events. Edgewood College (17-11, 7-2 NACC) won the first set 25-20, but trailed for much of the second set. With the Spartans ahead 26-25, Aurora looked like they may have won the set. A Spartan attack caromed off an Eagle defender toward the back wall of the Edgedome. Before Rachel Tesch could make a play on the ball, though it struck the basketball standard, forcing a replay of the point. On the replay Renee Meister hammered home a kill to tie the set at 26-26. Two points later, after an assisted block by Meister and Elizabeth Evans and a service ace from Jordan Winkler, the Eagles had won 28-26 and owned a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Eagles seemed to have the third set and the match locked up, with a 16-5 lead, following an attack error by Aurora's Lexi O'Boyle. However, Aurora responded with a stunning rally, coming all the way back to take their first lead of the set at 24-23 and eventually winning 27-25. Edgewood College certainly could have folded after their third set let down, but the Eagles scored a 10-2 run in the fourth set to go from five points down to an 18-15 lead, and eventually the match.
With 14 kills apiece, Winkler and Evans led four different Eagles with double digits kills in the match. Meister scored 13 kills, while Savannah Koester totaled 10 kills. Evan committed just one error for a team-high .419 attack percentage. Tesch cleaned up the back row with 31 digs, while Winkler added 21 for a double-double. Haley Schwenn led the Eagles with 31 assists.
In the second match of the day, Edgewood College split the first two sets with Augustana College (18-7) split the first two evenly-matched sets and appeared to be on their way to a five-set thriller. However, the Eagles rolled out to a 13-5 lead in the third set behind four kills from Winkler, and then dominated most of the fourth set, as Evans scored five of her match-high 14 kills in the final set. Evans, who entered the match with five service aces in her career, had four against the Vikings.
Winkler had 11 kills to go with 17 digs, for her 17th double-double of the season, breaking her personal record of 16 double-doubles she had as a sophomore. Koester scored 10 kills, while Sarah Schuchhardt added seven. Meister and Evans had six assisted blocks each. Rachel Thomsen led the Eagles with 21 assists, although she nearly shared honors with Schwenn who had 20 assists.
Edgewood College holds a solid grasp on third place in the NACC heading into their final two league matches of the season. The Eagles will travel to MSOE on Wednesday evening, and then return to the Edgedome for their final regular season home match next Saturday against Wisconsin Lutheran College.
