St. Norbert Battles to Split at Bethel Tournament

From Asst. AD/Athletics Communications, September 14, 2019 | Women's Volleyball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. - St. Norbert College split with a pair of solid Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foes at the Bethel University Invitational, dropping a 3-1 decision to St. Olaf College before bouncing back to beat Bethel in a 3-2 thriller.

The Green Knights fell to the Oles 25-21, 18-25, 25-15, 25-18 before outlasting the Royals 11-25, 28-26, 23-25, 27-25, 20-18.

St. Norbert (8-5) faced a match point for Bethel in the fourth set, with the Royals holding a 24-23 lead. Grace Baumann and Lexie Van Hiel had kills to swing the momentum St. Norbert's direction, with another kill by Baumann putting St. Norbert ahead 26-25 before a Bethel attacking error ended the set. Bethel led the fifth set 13-11 before kills by Haley Bartz and Baumann tied the set. A Bethel kill gave the Royals another match point, but a kill by Baumann and a service ace by Jessica Geurts gave St. Norbert match point. Van Hiel kept the Green Knights alive with a kill trailing 17-16. An attacking error with Bethel leading 18-17 set up kills by Emily Terry and Geurts to end the match.

Baumann turned in 21 kills with seven errors on a whopping 71 swings. Terry, Geurts and Van Hiel all had 11 kills, while Bartz finished with 10. Emily Rohloff posted 58 assists. St. Norbert hit .178 (68-30-213) in the match.

Rohloff had a team-high 25 digs, followed by Baumann with 20 and Liz Maastricht with 19. Baumann and Geurts had four blocks apiece.

St. Norbert couldn't slow down a tall St. Olaf team, which hit .324 (63-18-139). Baumann had 12 kills for the Green Knights, who hit .211 (37-14-109). Rohloff finished with 29 assists.

Maastricht had 10 digs, while Van Hiel had four blocks.