Box Score

ST. PAUL – The University of Northwestern volleyball team hung with the University of St. Thomas for periods of time on Wednesday night, but the fourth-ranked Tommies showed their prowess in a 3-0 (25-23, 25-14, 25-18) victory over the Eagles. While UNW suffered a loss on the court, the Eagles celebrated a victory off the court as over $2,000 was raised as part of Northwestern's "Purple for Gold" night that benefited the Miracles of Mitch Foundation.

The first set was the closest of the three as UNW showed poise, sticking with its high-powered opponent in front of a loud home crowd. Northwestern scored the first three points of the night and had its blocking defense going early. The Tommies also excelled at the net, as each team had four blocks when play was temporarily halted for a rotation discussion as UST led 19-17. UNW came within a point on a block from Hallie Mueth (Sheffield, Iowa/West Fork) and Faith Vander Galien (Chanhassen, Minn./Southwest Christian), but St. Thomas rattled off three straight points thanks to two Kelly Foley kills. Northwestern was again in the hunt at 24-23 after a Krista Stoltz (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) kill, but the Tommies' Jill Greenfield ended the set with a kill from Maddie Reese.

UNW again took an early lead in Set 2, but the buffer didn't last too long as St. Thomas came on strong with a 7-2 run. The Eagles took advantage of back-to-back Greenfield hitting errors to knot the score at 8-8, but couldn't get back over the hump as a one-time 12-11 Tommies lead turned into a 25-14 final set score as Northwestern's offense hit some road bumps down the stretch.

The Eagles found themselves even with the Tommies at 6-6 in the third set, but five straight UST points had the visitor on the scoreboard leading 10-6. That buffer remained for St. Thomas, reaching seven when Greenfield's Kill made it a 19-12 game. While Northwestern continued to score, the Eagles couldn't string multiple points together and eventually ran out of real estate as the Tommies left the building with a 25-18 Set 3 win and a 3-0 match victory.

Northwestern recovered moderately from the first set when the Eagles' errors numbers matched the kills column. .087 and .086 numbers in Sets 2 and 4 helped UNW finish with a .057 mark for the night as only Vander Galien was the only Eagle hitter to posted a hitting rate above .200. Lizzy Potratz (Oshkosh, Wis./Valley Christian ) finished with a team-best eight kills for UNW, while Krista Stoltz (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) had 24 assists in the match. Northwestern had just one block in the second and third sets combined, with Mueth getting her hands in on three of the team's five rejections for the match.

The Foley, a 2012 AVCA First Team All-American, led all players with 12 kills and a .450 attacking percentage while Reese and Katie Maher combined for 43 assists in the Tommies' 6-2 offense. The victory bumps UST's season record up to 25-2.

At 18-12 overall, Northwestern will look to regroup before resuming Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) action this weekend. The Eagles will play at Crown College on Friday night (7 p.m.) before heading farther west to face off against the University of Minnesota Morris and Concordia College-Moorhead in a Saturday triangular. UNW's 12 p.m. match against the Cougars from Morris will be both teams' final league match of the regular season with both UMAC regular season championship and tournament seeding implications on the line. Both Northwestern and Minnesota Morris have clinched home court advantage for the UMAC Tournament's semifinal round next Wednesday evening.

Stay tuned to unweagles.com for a photo gallery from Northwestern's "Purple for Gold" night.