WINONA, Minn. – The Carleton volleyball team finished the weekend unbeaten in three matches at the Sugar Loaf Classic following wins over Buena Vista and UW-La Crosse Saturday at Saint Mary's Gymnasium. The Knights swept Buena Vista before capturing a thrilling five-set win over UW-La Crosse. Carleton improves to 6-2 on the young season, its best start since 2018 when the Knights opened the year 10-1.
Match 1 – Carleton 3, Buena Vista 0
The Knights came out and blitzed the Beavers in the opening set. Tied 4-4, Carleton used scored four straight points to open up an 8-4 lead, then later used five unanswered to double up Buena Vista 14-7. The Knights controlled throughout, as the Beavers never scored more than back-to-back points. Carleton hit a blistering .441 with 16 kills in the opening frame to grab the early advantage.
It was more of the same to begin the second set. The Maize and Blue jumped out to a 7-2 lead that included a stretch of five straight points thanks in large part to a pair of service aces from first-year
Ellewyn Swafford. This time around, the Beavers were up to the challenge, as they clawed back to take the lead midway through the set. Trailing 15-12, Buena Vista scored five straight to capture a 17-15 lead. But the Knights responded with six straight of their own to open up a four-point lead (21-17). Though the Beavers scored three-straight, the Knights went on to score the final four points of the frame to take the second set 25-20.
Needing a win in set three, Buena Vista stepped on the gas to open the frame. The Beavers jumped out to a 12-3 lead. An 8-2 run got the Knights back in it, narrowing the score to 14-11. Midway through the set, the Beavers held a 16-12 lead until Carleton put together another 8-2 run that proved to be the difference. Junior
Sylvia Dixon was the catalyst for the run. She sparked the run with a kill and an ace to cut the lead to two (18-16). Three more kills and an ace finished the run, which gave the Knights a 20-18 lead that they would not relinquish the rest of the set to complete the sweep.
Carleton finished the match with a 43-31 kill advantage and posted a .228 hitting percentage compared to .124 for Buena Vista. The Knights also doubled up the Beavers in aces (8-4).
Dixon was the only Knight to register double-figure kills with 10 to go along with nine digs in the match. Sophomore
Megan Smith put up 16 assists with three service aces, while junior
Isabel Macia added 12 assists. First-year
Madeleine Dimitre put up a team-high 18 digs. Senior
Kerrigan Candra followed with 16.
Match 2 – Carleton 3, UW-La Crosse 2
Saturday's second match was a thriller. The opening set went the way of the Eagles from the start. La Crosse scored the first three points of the frame and never trailed. The Knights came back to tie the score 5-5, but four straight points for the Eagles gave them the breathing room they needed. La Crosse finished the set on a 10-1 run to close out the first 25-12.
Carleton faired better in the second set. Tied 9-9, the Knights scored three straight to create a 12-9 edge. Later, Carleton scored five unanswered, including back-to-back kills from Dixon to open up a 20-13 lead. The Eagles closed the gap to four (22-18) late in the set, but the Knights scored three of the final four points to even the match 1-1.
The momentum continued to be on the side of the Maize and Blue to open the third set, as the Knights jumped out to a 9-4 lead. A 7-1 run put La Crosse back in front 11-10 before Carleton grabbed the lead back at 16-14 with a 4-1 spurt. It wouldn't last long, as the Eagles scored four straight to re-capture the lead 18-16. From there, the Knights took control, scoring nine of the last 10 points of the set to sprint through the finish with a 25-19 win.
After the Knights took the pivotal third set, the fourth began as a back-and-forth affair to the midway point of the frame. A
Kerrigan Candra kill brought the Knights to within one point (14-13) before the Eagles scored six straight to open up a 20-13 lead and create the advantage La Crosse needed to send the match to a fifth and deciding set.
The deciding set turned out to be all Carleton. The Eagles led 2-1 early before the Knights stormed out on a 10-0 spurt that all but put the set away. Sophomore
Kate Wiczynski tallied four kills in the run and
Jennifer Bricker added back-to-back kills to push the Carleton lead out to 11-2. From there, the Maize and Blue held La Crosse at arm's length.
Sylvia Dixon put the exclamation mark on the win, closing out the match with a service ace to take the fifth 15-6 and the match 3-2.
Kerrigan Candra recorded a double-double with 14 kills and 13 digs to lead the way for Carleton. Dixon finished with eight kills and four aces, while Bricker also tallied eight kills.
Megan Smith also put up a double-double with a career-high 36 assists and 12 digs.
Madeleine Dimitre totaled 14 digs in the win.
Up Next for the Knights
After opening the season with eight matches on the road, the Knights will host their home opener on Wednesday night when they host North Central University at West Gym. That match is set for a 7pm start.
