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St. Olaf Volleyball Splits Over the Weekend

Judy Stromayer
October 8, 2001

St. Olaf finished a four game road streak by traveling to Hamline University on Friday, Oct. 5, and then to Bethel College on Saturday, Oct. 6. The weekend brought varying outcomes, but the Oles continue to have high motivation to push toward the conference tournament. At the end of the weekend, the winning streak had been stopped; however, the team is determined to maintain the same goals of striving for the conference title, the conference tournament, and continuing on to the NCAA Division III Championship tournament.

Friday night against the Pipers was a quick battle, the Oles winning in three games, 30-17, 30-23, 30-17. The key factor for the victory was an extremely varied and fast offense. The entire team contributed to the success of the match. Andrea Drapcho (So., Waconia, Minn.) gave the team something to cheer about with her aggressive swings on the left side. The win against Hamline increased the winning streak up to 14-0 and the team had high hopes and confidence for the match against Bethel on the following day.

Bethel?s Royals gave St. Olaf a fine wake up call that was as fast and decisive as the Oles are used to dishing out. The match was done in three games, and though both teams worked hard at a high intensity level, Bethel held the winning hand from the very beginning of the first game. The key factor that lost the game for the Oles was the basic skill of serve-receive passing. St. Olaf totaled 10 serve receive errors throughout the match, of which contributed to a less deceptive and slower offense. The grit of the Ole?s game came through on the defense and the digs. Shannah Olson (Jr., Elk River, Minn.) led the team with 13 digs and many of the other players were not far behind her. The game scores were 22-30, 14-30, and 20-30.

Although the loss was bitter, the Oles will match up against the Royals in a tournament at Whitewater, Wis. at the end of October and finally at the conference tournament. The team hopes to take the disappointment of the loss to strive for a higher level of preparation to continue throughout the rest of season. The first test will be at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, October 10 playing against Macalester College at home. Macalester beat Bethel during conference play earlier this year; however, St. Olaf beat Macalester at the Augsburg Invitational in September.

Contact Judy Stromayer at 507-786-3315 or stromaye@stolaf.edu.