After four matches in two days, Gustavus finished fifth of eight teams at the 30th Annual Augsburg Volleyball Invitational last weekend, with Senior Captain Malea Noennig earning a spot on the All-Tournament team.
Gustavus started strong, sweeping University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire 3-0 in their first match last Friday, but fell to St. Benedict’s College in five close sets later that day. A couple high points in that loss came from First-year Jessica Grill, who had a game-high 18 kills coming off the bench, and Senior Captain Olivia Warren who recorded 14 kills along with 17 digs.
St. Scholastica, ranked 25th in the nation, swept Gustavus 3-0 in their first match on Saturday, dropping them into the fifth place game of the tournament.
“Losing to St. Ben’s was really draining,” Senior Captain Angela Ahrendt said. That kind of hung over us against St. Scholastica.” Gustavus responded by sweeping Augsburg decisively in the fifth place match. Ahrendt and Noennig were huge contributors to the win, as Ahrendt had 14 kills and Noennig tallied 22 assists.
Noennig finished the tournament with a total of 21 digs and 117 set assists for an average of 29.25 assists per match, earning her a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
“If the passers and hitters weren’t on, I wouldn’t have gotten any of that recognition, so it couldn’t have happened without them,” Noennig said of the honor.
While Noennig has proven herself an excellent setter, her teammates speak first of the energy she brings to the court.
“I feel like whenever anybody gets a kill, Malea is the first one in your face celebrating with you,” Warren said of her co-captain.
Last weekend’s action was the team’s second tournament of the season. Gustavus finished in second place after going 3-1 at the Pike’s Peak Tournament, which was held Sept. 2-3 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“We hadn’t really played together as a team, so it was huge to put everything together like we did,” Senior Captain Katie Ness said of the team’s strong finish. “Everything just clicked.”
The team’s only loss at Pike’s Peak was to Colorado College, which is ranked 13th in the nation.
“We proved to ourselves that we could compete with anyone, especially after taking Colorado College to five close games,” Warren said of their second place finish.
Gustavus now stands at 5-3, and will have begun MIAC play as of Sept. 14 when they travel to face undefeated St. Thomas.
“We’re really excited. St. Thomas is always a good game and they’re doing really well, and we really want to hand them their first loss,” Ahrendt said.
After they face St. Thomas, the Volleyball Team will travel to Mankato for the Bethany Lutheran Tournament on Sept. 16 and 17. Gustavus’ first home match isn’t until Sept. 21 when they host conference rivals St. Olaf.