<ite a ruckus crowd bolstered by parent’s weekend, the inspired women’s volleyball team could not pull off the upset of 21st ranked College of St. Benedict’s College Blazers last Friday, losing in five sets (18-25, 25-23, 25-21, 20-25, 12-15).
Coach Jaynes’s team tried to take full advantage of parent’s weekend. The unusual Friday night matchup made for a packed West Gym, and the Knights’ players’ notes to their parents spread throughout the gym gave the match a personal feel. The Knights rode this emotion in the first set, and were only two points down when the Blazers called a desperation timeout at 18-20. However, the Blazers came out of the timeout firing, and took the next five points and the set, 18-25.
Coach Jaynes’ team used a 9-4 run to jump out to an 11-6 lead in the second set. Although the Blazers slowly crawled back into the set, Katie Stanchak ’09 slammed the door shut with a huge kill to give the Knights’ a 25-23 second set victory.
The third set was almost déjà vu. An 11-3 run, which was aided by 3 consecutive kills by Megan La Chapelle ’09, gave the Knights a 12-4 advantage. Again, the Blazers slowly worked themselves back into the set. But this time it was Kyla Walter ’10 who had the deciding kill, which gave the Knights the third set, 25-21.
Unfortunately, at the height of their momentum, the wheels began to fall off for the Knitghts. Aided by a barrage of attack errors by the Knights, St. Ben’s used a 7-1 run win the fourth set 20-25. The Knights scrapped for a 10-10 tie, but the Blazers put together two straight kills to give the Blazers the final set 12-15 and the match.
In this intense match, Carleton was lead by the cool leadership of Sarah Kunelius ’09 who had nine kills and a .421 attack percentage, which was by far the best kill percentage of any player in the match. Defensively, Laura Barsness ’10 who had an astounding 25 digs in the match led the Knights.
Although the loss to Blazers was a tough pill to swallow, the Knights learned they could play with the best teams in the country. They took this lesson into their match on Tuesday against the Northwestern College Eagles, who had won 11 straight matches going into their match against the Knights. With their potent offense and impenetrable blocking, the Knights avenged a loss to Northwestern College earlier this season with a 3-1 victory (25-19, 24-26, 25-19, 25-17).
Led by four service aces, the Knights stunned the Eagles by jumping out to an 11-3 lead in the opening set. Coach Jaynes’s team never looked back and took the opening set 25-19. Then, the Eagles tied up the match by taking a back-and-forth second set, 24-26. Again, in the third set, Northwestern and Carleton battled back and forth until a big kill by Annie Eckhoff ’10 at 16-16 spurred a 9-3 run that helped the Knights take the third set 25-19. Similar to the first set, the Knights used an 11-3 lead in the fourth set to win the final set 25-17.
Last Tuesday’s match was a complete reversal of the Knights first meeting with the Eagles, when they finished with a dismal -.018 attack percentage and were constantly roofed. In contrast, the Knights had a solid .282 attack percentage and outblocked the Eagles 10-2. The Knights were clearly led by Walter who had a career high 11 kills and almost unfathomable .733 kill percentage. Not bad for someone who is still learning the outside hitter position. Aiding Walter, Sarah Halls ’10 had 10 kills and Eckhoff had a .417 attack percentage. Plus, it is important to mention these monster offensive statistics could not be possible without the setting of Erin Anderson ’12 and Beth Jarrett ’11.
The Knights will hope to continue their good play against the Concordia Cobbers this Saturday at West Gym. Saturday will also be the Knights’ DIG PINK event where Carleton encourages its fans to wear pink in support of breast cancer awareness. Carleton fans can get involved by donating online at sideoutvolleyball.org. All proceeds will go towards breast cancer research and helping individuals live with breast cancer. Please donate what you can, support the Knights on Saturday, and wear pink.