ST. PAUL, Minn. – To celebrate Mac Fest 2025, the Macalester College volleyball team hosted their Alumni Night against Saint Mary's University today. In front of their alums, the Scots battled down to the wire with the Cardinals but ultimately fell in five sets, 25-21, 22-25, 20-25, 25-18, 15-13 Saturday evening in the Leonard Center. Macalester is now at 0-5 in the MIAC and 3-16 overall. Saint Mary's improves to 3-2 in the MIAC and 10-10 overall.
After junior setter Hannah Morrow (Raleigh, N.C./Millbrook) led the Scots on a little run to claim the lead early in the first set, the Cardinals rattled off a five-point run of their own that they rode all the way to their 25-21 win. Morrow logged two kills, nine assists and an ace in that first set.
In the second set, the Scots went down 20-18 before finding their legs. Sophomore Elizabeth Joo (San Jose, Calif./Valley Christian) went on a serving run to give Mac the lead. From there, a series of kills from sophomore Adonia Anene (North Hollywood, Calif/The Buckley School) and senior Avery Rahe (Olathe, Kan./Olathe West) finished off the Cardinals 25-22. Anene tallied six kills, an assist, three digs and two block assists in the set.
The Scots opened up a six-point lead in the middle of the third set with serving runs from sophomores Hannah Eisenman (Cary, N.C./Green Level) and Ella Cohen-Richie (Chicago, Ill./Univ. of Chicago Laboratory). They rode that lead to the end of the set, until a Cardinals' service error brought up set point and a Cohen-Richie ace sealed the 25-20 win. Cohen-Richie registered six kills and two digs in the set while serving five times.
The fourth set reached 17-17 before the Cardinals' blocking picked up. As the Scots struggled to get balls over the net, Saint Mary's rattled off an 8-1 run to close them out 25-18 and bring up a fifth set. Anene recorded five kills, but the Scots racked up 15 attack errors.
A back-and-forth fifth set saw both teams unable to gain separation from each other. Mac went up 13-12 off another Cardinal service error. Then, the Cardinals strung together their first pair of scores in a while to take the lead. Mac called a timeout, hoping to extend the game, but a Saint Mary's ace ended their night.
Anene finished the night with career highs of 20 kills and 20 digs. Morrow finished with 44 assists, 11 digs and an ace. Cohen-Richie had 13 kills, three aces and four block assists. Overall, Mac had 57 kills, 52 assists, six aces, 67 digs and 14 block assists.
The team continues MIAC play on Thursday, Oct. 16 against St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. The game will commence at 7 p.m.
