Box Score

ST. PAUL – Things were looking up for Northwestern College (Minn.) after two sets in Friday afternoon's NCAA Tournament region semifinal, but the College of Saint Benedict rallied from a 2-0 set deficit to win 3-2 (22-25, 20-25, 25-16, 25-21, 15-10) and advance to Saturday's final. The 24th-ranked Blazers, who hadn't beaten NWC in two prior meetings this season, used a nine-kill fifth set to win the match after finishing the fourth set on a 14-3 run that overtook a one-time 18-14 Eagles lead. Northwestern's season came to a close with the loss, with the Eagles wrapping up the 2012 season at 27-9 overall.

Northwestern came out with poise to start the match, keeping pace with the Blazers, who entered the region tournament as the No. 2 seed. After overcoming an early 4-1 Saint Ben's lead, neither team was able to gain more than a two-point advantage until a Blazers attack error gave the Eagles an 18-15 advantage. NWC still led at 21-19 following a kill by Cari Miller (West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley), and rode out the end of the set with a 4-2 run from there to win 25-22.

After a 5-5 tie in the second set, Northwestern started to take flight as the Eagles ran out to an 18-9 lead, with Kendra Korporal (Sumner, Iowa /Sumner-Fredericksburg) recording three kills in the spree. Blocking was also working in NWC's favor, but Saint Benedict came back with a mini-run to force an Eagles timeout at 23-18. Northwestern followed with two consecutive attacking errors but managed to escape with a 25-20 set victory. While NWC was finding success on offense, the Eagles defense was also performing well as the Blazers had 25 total kills and 21 attacking errors throughout the first two sets.

The tide began to turn in Set 3, when Saint Benedict scored the first five points before leading 11-3. An Eagles timeout proved to be beneficial, as Northwestern started chipping away at the Blazers margin, coming within two at 11-9. Saint Ben's got hot from there though, scoring eight of the next 11 points to lead 19-12. Korporal was still getting her kills, but points didn't come nearly as easy for NWC, who started facing a triple block from the Blazers. Northwestern wasn't able to get closer than seven points the rest of the way out as Saint Benedict won the set 25-16.

The fourth set was a point-for-point battle, as neither team was able to gain more than a two-point advantage with multiple ties taking shape on the scoreboard, including at 11-11. Northwestern won four consecutive points to lead 15-11 and 18-14 until the Eagles started to run out of gas. Saint Ben's scored six straight points to go up 20-18 before closing out the set with a 25-21 buffer to force a race to 15 in Set 5.

Northwestern, who was playing in a five-set match for the second straight day after defeating the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point 3-2 in Thursday's opening round, found itself looking up at the Blazers' 6-3 lead after an initial 3-3 tie. Fatigue was making a presence as the Eagles' attacking errors were unfortunately keeping pace with NWC's kills. Northwestern did force a Blazers timeout at 13-9 after scoring three straight points, but three rallies later, Saint Benedict landed a date in Saturday's region final with a 15-10 set win and 3-2 match victory.

Northwestern finished with a .084 attacking percentage, tallying 51 kills and 33 errors compared to 62 and 40 for the Blazers, who hit .097. The Eagles' 21.5 team blocks were easily a season high for Northwestern. Senior Tija Rudzitis (Andover, Minn./Meadow Creek Christian ) had a lot to do with that number as she rejected an astounding 12 CSB attacks. Courtney Jonas (Neenah, Wis./Valley Christian) added eight blocks in her final match.

Korporal finished with an Eagles-high 17 kills, while Miller wrapped up her sophomore season with a 14-kill performance on 35 attempts. Krista Stoltz (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) was good for 42 assists on the night, while four different Northwestern players had 20 or more digs. Lexi Bertsch (Andover, Minn./Meadow Creek Christian) led that back row defense with 28 digs, Katelyn Kostek (Des Moines, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) finished her four-year career with 22 digs, marking the second 20-dig match in a row for the senior.

Lexi Alm had a match-high 20 kills for Saint Benedict, who came back to hit .097 for the match after finishing the first set in negative digits. The Blazers will go on to face the University of St. Thomas on Saturday evening with a trip to the Elight Eight on the line.