Notables:
-In the game against UWRF, Burns tied her season high of four blocks
-UW-Stout broke its eight game losing streak
-UW-River Falls is 0-3 in the WIAC

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (csssaints.com) - The St. Scholastica volleyball team played in the Sandy Schumacher Memorial Tournament in Eau Claire on Saturday, facing University of Wisconsin-River Falls and University of Wisconsin-Stout. CSS split the two matches, winning 3-1 against UWRF and losing in a 3-0 sweep against UW-Stout.

CSS 3, UW-River Falls 1
UWRF had the most success in the first set, though the Saints kept it close. The Falcons ended up with a 25-19 victory. Sets two and three were even closer than that, with final scores of 25-22 and 25-20, respectively. Those two sets fell into the Saints' favor and gave them the 2-1 lead in the match. The fourth set was by no means a blow out, but the Saints had found a rhythm that the Falcons could not quite match. CSS came away with a 25-17 victory and a 3-1 win for the first match of the day.

Big players for the Saints were Madissen Burns (Watertown, Minn./Watertown-Mayer HS), Brooke Schermann (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Totino-Grace HS), and Emily Bounds (Hill City, Minn./Hill City HS), who each collected seven kills. Espi Austvold (Spicer, Minn./New London-Spicer HS) had 15 assists, and Kelsi Rippberger (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) followed closely in her tracks with 14. On defense, Christaia Houser (Esko, Minn./Homeschool) tallied seven blocks and Taylor Thompson (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo HS) earned 20 digs for the team.

For the Falcons, Amara Meyer finished with 11 kills, as did Karli Nielsen. Hailey Huseth had 24 assists and Jordyn Abramowicz worked out of the back row and earned 21 digs.

UW-Stout 3, CSS 0
The second match of the day did not go quite so well for CSS. The first set between Stout and St. Scholastica was a close contest but ended up working out best for the Blue Devils who came away with a final victory of 25-22. The Saints had a bit of trouble in the second set and lost by a margin of 12 points with a final score of 25-13. CSS got back in it in the third set and kept things close, but the Blue Devils kept themselves a step ahead and came away with the 25-21 win to take the match.

Schermann was a driving force on offense in the second match as well, with nine kills. Austvold had 13 assists and Thompson had eight digs, followed by Rippberger with six. Brooke Elvehjem (Mora, Minn./Mora HS) had four kills and four blocks.

For the Blue Devils, Kennedy Strain led the front row offense with 13 kills. Jessica DuVal had 40 assists and on defense, Steph Cannon had 17 digs.

Up Next
The Saints (8-16, 5-6 UMAC) return to conference play on Wednesday in Ashland when they take on Northland College at 7 p.m.