WINONA, Minn. – If early matches are any indications, it may be a season full of close contests and razor thin results for the Edgewood College volleyball team. Edgewood College battled St. Mary's University deep into a fifth set before coming up short 3-2 in their third match at the Sugar Loaf Classic. The Eagles then fell to Luther College 3-1 in the final match of the tournament to close the weekend with a 1-3 record.
Edgewood College (1-3) opened up the match against St. Mary's by winning the first set, but fell behind 2-1 heading to the fourth set. In that set, the Eagles trailed 18-16, but launched a 5-0 run on the serve of Alex Zapuchlak to grab a 21-18 lead. Seghan Northey served out the final two points for a 25-20 win to force a decisive fifth set.
The Eagles seemed to be against the ropes facing match point at 14-12 in the final set, but Mackenzie Doherty answered the challenge with back-to-back kills. Doherty and the Eagles fought off another match point to tie the score at 15-15, but St. Mary's University (3-0) notched the final two points to finish a 23-25, 25-22, 25-18, 20-25, 17-15 victory.
Freshman Sarah Pfeifer continued her breakout debut weekend with 24 kills in the match, which ties for 14th all-time in Edgewood College's single-match records, and the fourth-highest total since the institution of rally scoring in 2001. Pfeifer hit a team-high .358 for the match and also had 16 digs for her first career double-double. Doherty also posted a career-high with 18 kills and a .341 attack percentage. Sarah Uczen totaled 25 digs and led the team with three service aces. Tori Wiskow had three blocks.
In the second match, the Eagles dropped the first set 25-17 but used a 6-0 run in the second set to take a commanding 19-13 lead. Brittany Sager had two kills and Uczen provided an ace to lead the Eagles to a 25-16 win in the second set. However, the Eagles played from behind Luther College (2-1) for most of the third and fourth sets, falling 25-17, 16-25, 25-22, 25-18.
Doherty posted 11 kills and added three blocks to lead the Eagles attack against the Norse. Pfeifer also reached double digits with 10 kills. Edgewood College had 10 total blocks led by Wiskow with five assisted blocks, and freshman Lizzie Lightner with a solo block and four assisted blocks. Megan Schwartz also had four assisted blocks. Uczen and Amanda Meister were in double figures in digs with 15 and 10, respectively.
Edgewood College will continue their challenging non-conference schedule on Tuesday with a pair of matches at Wheaton College. The Eagles will face UW-Oshkosh and the host Thunder.
