ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Macalester College volleyball team hosted St. Olaf College and UW-La Crosse in a tri-match Saturday afternoon in the Leonard Center. The Scots lost to both the Oles and the Eagles in four sets, and are now 7-13 on the season and 2-4 in the conference.
In Macalester's first match, a game against MIAC opponent St. Olaf (17-5, 5-1 MIAC), the Scots won the fiercely contested first set. The Scots and Oles traded points until a tie at 7-7, when a streak of five points – including three kills by first-year middle blocker
Kyle Speta (San Francisco, Calif./Urban School of San Francisco) – brought Macalester to a 12-7 lead. Macalester held their lead and claimed the set, 25-22. The Scots registered 19 kills in the set, with five coming from first-year outside hitter
Channing Smith (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park River Forest).
St. Olaf took the last three sets, but Macalester put up a fight, briefly pulling ahead from behind in both the second and fourth sets. In the match, junior outside hitter
Adonia Anene (North Hollywood, Calif./The Buckley School) logged 12 kills to lead the team, while Smith and first-year setter
Lydia Koshuta (Appleton, Wis./Appleton) registered 22 digs and 16 assists, respectively, for the Scots. Throughout the match, the Scots beat the Oles in assists and digs and tied in kills, but were beaten out in aces and blocks.
Macalester battled UW-La Crosse (10-12) for their second game, losing after four tight sets. After dropping a hard-fought first set, Macalester held UWL to 16 points in the second set, helped along by an early 4-0 lead and a later string of five points, culminating with a service ace by senior setter
Hannah Morrow (Raleigh, N.C./Millbrook), to end the set at 25-16.
The Scots fell again in the third and fourth sets, but did not go down without a battle. Macalester overcame a three-point deficit to tie the third set at 19, but could not overcome UWL's offense, who closed the set at 25-21. In the fourth, neither team pulled ahead by more than two points at any time. Back-to-back kills by first-year middle blocker
Siennah Calkins (Tomahawk, Wis./Tomahawk) took Macalester to a one-point lead at the match point, 24-23, but an attack error by Macalester tied the set and two scoring plays by the Eagles gave them the match.
Macalester had more kills than UWL in the match (52-20), with Anene and Calkins contributing 16 and 12 kills, respectively. Morrow led the team with 21 assists, 18 digs, and four service aces.
Macalester will hit the road for their next game, a conference match-up against Augsburg University in Minneapolis on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 7:00 p.m.
Story by Miles Remmel
