Box Score

ST. PAUL – Playing in their fifth-ever NCAA Tournament match, the University of Northwestern took a set from reigning national champion University of St. Thomas on Thursday night, but it was the Tommies who came out on top 3-1 (25-20, 24-26, 25-18, 25-17). UNW posted a strong hitting rate with high blocking numbers, but the Eagles couldn't contain UST's Kelly Foley and the rest of the Tommie offense.



Northwestern showed poise in the first set, grabbing and holding on to a lead for a bulk of the round. Down 3-0 early on, the Eagles rallied on two kills and a block from Cari Miller (West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley) to tie the score at 4-4 before taking a 6-4 advantage. Northwestern was able to keep the minor buffer on the scoreboard in its favor, leading 11-9 behind a .267 hitting rate while holding the host-Tommies to an even .000 mark at the time. While UST scored two straight points to tie the score at 11-11, setter Krista Stoltz (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) was starting to find an opening on the Tommies side of the court as evidenced by her two dumps for kills. Meanwhile, Stoltz was finding success distributing her sets across the court as Hallie Mueth (Sheffield, Iowa/West Fork) and Miller both had two kills, as did UNW libero Lexi Bertsch (Andover, Minn./Meadow Creek Christian), guiding the Eagles to a 15-12 advantage. The Eagles still maintained a three-point edge at 17-14.

St. Thomas slowly climbed back into the set behind their leader, Foley, a junior AVCA All-American. Foley and her Tommie teammates started to fire quicker on offense, tying the set at 18-18 before taking their first lead since 4-3 at 19-18. Foley's seventh kill of the set gave UST its largest lead of the day thus far at five points, and the set went to St. Thomas soon thereafter at 25-20. Northwestern finished the set with a .118 hitting rate, while the Tommies' attacking mark improved to .257 by the time the round was over.

It took a little while, but Northwestern got back on track in the second set. Again, St. Thomas was back out in front early with a 4-1 advantage as the Tommies continued to feed off of Foley's offensive production. UNW got closer at 6-5 on a Stoltz kill, then tied it at six points apiece courtesy of a kill from Potratz. The home team responded with three straight points, but Northwestern's block continued to find success in making UST work for its points. Potratz had another one of her six kills for the set to tie the set at 10-10 before a Tommies hitting error gave the Eagles their first lead of the round. A familiar theme started to set in as Northwestern would go up by a point before St. Thomas would come back to tie. After a 14-14 stalemate, UST won three of the next four points to force Eagles head coach Beth Wilmeth to take a timeout. Northwestern responded to the one-minute break to tie the score at 20-20 and the back-and-forth one-point swings returned. A Mueth kill gave the Purple and Gold a 6-2 run while forcing the Tommies to take their first timeout of the match. Ties continued through 24 before a St. Thomas serving error precluded an Eagles block that ended the set in UNW's favor, 26-24. Potratz was big for Northwestern in Set 2, tallying six kills on 12 attempts while Bertsch was good for nine digs.

The Eagles held on early in Set 3, but it didn't take long for St. Thomas to show its frustration from the previous set loss with a strong offensive output down the stretch. The Eagles overturned an early UST lead to own a slight 6-5 advantage of their own thanks to Miller's ace, but the Tommies responded with four straight points and a 6-1 run to lead 11-7. Foley's 17th kill of the night made it a 14-8 Tommies buffer and Maddie Reese served an ace to boost the St. Thomas lead to 16-8, forcing a Northwestern timeout. UST head coach Thanh Pham took Foley out of the match briefly, but opposite hitter Sara Atkinson picked up where her teammate left off as her kill made it 24-18. Enter Foley for a kill of her own to make it a 25-18 final set margin to put the Tommies back in front 2-1 in the match score.
 
Service errors were a common theme in the beginning of Set 4 as the two teams combined for three errors in the initial seven points. St. Thomas continued its third set momentum, but consecutive kills from Faith Vander Galien (Chanhassen, Minn./Southwest Christian) and Kendra Korporal (Sumner, Iowa /Sumner-Fredericksburg) kept the Eagles within three points at 8-5. Wilmeth called timeouts with her team traililng by six and seven points even though both Northwestern and the Tommies were hitting over .200 for the match, rates that continued throughout the remainder of the night. But while Northwestern finished at .221 in the match, St. Thomas had 15 more kills while hitting over 60 points better than the Eagles.

St. Thomas (29-2), ranked fourth in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Top 25 poll, wrapped up the night with a spree of kills and aces as the UNW defense started to fall apart. Atkinson continued her pace, finishing with five kills in the last two sets, while Foley's 25th kill of the night – a career high for the junior – was the Tommies' match-winning point.

Potratz and Mueth both posted double-digit kills at 12 and 10 for Northwestern, while Stoltz wrapped up a monumental four years with 36 assists, finishing with 4,388 for her career.

Defensively, Bertsch had a 16-dig night to end her senior year. Vander Galien and Potratz each had five blocks to help the Eagles finish the night with 11, six better than St. Thomas' five.

Northwestern's season ends at 23-13 after the Eagles won the program's 16th Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) regular season title and advanced to the NCAA postseason for the fourth straight year, a feat only St. Thomas has accomplished for schools within a 300-mile radius of the Twin Cities.