Box Score

ST. PAUL – It took four sets, but the University of Northwestern defeated the College of St. Scholastica 3-1 (25-18, 25-14, 23-25, 25-19) in Wednesday's semifinal round of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Volleyball Tournament. The top-seeded Eagles, who received 15 kills from Hallie Mueth (Sheffield, Iowa/West Fork) and 14 from Cari Miller (West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley), advance to host No. 2 University of Minnesota Morris in the championship match on Saturday night.



Northwestern was rolling in the first and second sets until St. Scholastica put a scare into the Eagles with a Set 3 victory. Miller had 10 kills through the first two rounds as the junior was hitting .444 from her middle blocker position. Like Miller, UNW was also hitting well, posting a .220 rate in Set 1 and a bigger number in .316 in Set 2 as the Eagles outscored their opponent 50-32.

Then came the third set when the Saints decided that they weren't ready to end their 2013 campaign yet. Northwestern led 10-8, but suddenly kills by Kayla Horbaca and Taylor Orhn had St. Scholastica ahead 12-11. A Kendra Korporal (Sumner, Iowa /Sumner-Fredericksburg) kill and an ace from Miller put UNW back in front at 19-17, marking the first time that either team had more than a one-point lead since 11-9. That lead vanished at 20-20, and it was the Eagles who were forced to take their first timeout of the match, trailing 22-21. The timeout gave the Purple a brief push to regain a one-point advantage, but back-to-back kills from CSS's Kortney Morrin and a UNW hitting error gave St. Scholastica life with the set victory.

Set 4 looked much like the second set for Northwestern as the kills started to pile up, giving the Eagles an increasing cushion at 15-12, then 20-13. UNW was stuck at 24 points for a while though as the Saints earned five straight before Mueth ended the night with a kill to give Northwestern a 25-19 set victory and a ticket to Saturday's 7 p.m. championship with the match win.

A .058 hitting rate in Set 3 put the Eagles back a bit, but Northwestern hit .220 in the fourth round to finish at .192 for the night. Krista Stoltz (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) was even keeled with 42 assists, while UNW had eight blocks, with Miller getting in on six of those rejections. Lexi Bertsch (Andover, Minn./Meadow Creek Christian) came up big in the back row, finishing with 27 digs to lead all players. Northwestern dug 78 balls throughout the match.

Minnesota Morris advances to Saturday's final after a 3-0 victory over No. 3 Martin Luther College on Wednesday night. The Eagles and Cougars split their regular season contests to share the UMAC title with each team taking a match on the other's home court.

Saturday's match will be broadcast online at unweagles.com/live.