Knights sweep

St. Scholastica to

claim UMAC title

By BOB VARMETTE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Back them against the wall and even Saints will fight like hell.

The Martin Luther Knights cruised through their first two games with St. Scholastica. But in the third game of their fourth match of the day the Saints proved they still had enough left to make the Knights earn it.

But not enough to deny MLC the UMAC postseason tournament championship the Saints kept from the Knights last season. MLC fought off CSS 15-4, 15-5, 15-12 Saturday night in the UMAC tournament championship match.

"We had people coming in and out of the (third) game," MLC coach Drew Buck said. "We lost a little bit of continuity that way. ... When you do that, you lose a little bit of our offense."

But not the match. And that was ... nice.

"It was nice to (play) St. Scholastica, being that they were the ones that took us out last year," Buck said. "It made it a little bit more special the fact we could do that against a team that had done that to us."

Revenge may have been on the minds of the Knights. Or maybe MLC (31-4) just wanted to be the gracious hosts and make sure CSS (21-20) got back to Duluth before a snowstorm hit.

Nah, it was revenge.

"I think we all really wanted to come back and beat them," said junior setter Jenny Nommensen, who led the Knights with 16 set assists. "It was a team effort. Once we got out there, it was just everybody playing hard because wanted to win."

Lisa Gawrisch led the Knights with 10 kills and sister Kelly added 9 for MLC. Senior setter Emily Hahnke added 12 set assists for the Knights.

Avenging last season's loss to the Saints in the UMAC tournament final was on the Knights' minds, but it wasn't their sole focus as they readied for the showdown.

"We were just talking about our game plan (before the match)," MLC junior outside hitter Liesse Luetzow said. "It was in the back of our minds, but that's always going to be in the back of your mind ... but it was more about what we were going to do now, and not about the past."

Perhaps a little doubt crept into the minds of the Knights, though, in that third game. After dispatching an obviously tired Saint squad handily in the first two games, the Knights had to fight off the Saints after taking an early 3-0 lead.

CSS went on a three-point run on the serve of Amber Werner, tying the game at 6-all when outside hitter Jenny Mayers floated a soft kill to the Knights' deep middle. After trading sides out with MLC, CSS took a 7-6 lead on a Kelly Gawrisch hitting error off a back row attack and then took a 9-6 advantage on back-to-back kills by outside hitter Kristy Klein.

MLC tied the game at 10-all with three straight points on the serve of senior setter Emily Hahnke. But the Saints forced a side out with a kill from New Ulm Cathedral-ex Kathy Hazuka through the block of Missy Hahnke.

Two Knight errors gave CSS a 12-10 margin, but the Saints, who played a five-game match with Northwestern (Roseville) immediately before meeting MLC, finally found they had nothing left.

The Knights took a 14-12 lead when Mayers sailed an attack wide and Becky Bertolus served up an ace. MLC finished the Saints with a Lisa Gawrisch kill that Kate Wagemaker couldn't dig up in the back row.

"We knew that we had to redeem ourselves and at least give them the best fight we could give them," CSS coach Dana Moore said. "(The day) was brutal, we just didn't have anything left at the end. ... We were spent by the time we got threw with Northwestern."

The Saints' offense was nearly nonexistent in the match. Freshman middle hitter Amanda Schaust led CSS with only six kills; Hazuka added five kills for the Saints.

"I don't think this was our best blocking match, but our back row picked up," MLC junior middle hitter Rachel Kramer said. "They did just an incredible job for us. I think they were really the heroes for us in this match."

Kramer had four blocks and senior Christa Holub led the Knights with seven blocks.

MLC advances to the NAIA Region III tournament to face a team to be determined, likely to be No. 3 seed Briar Cliff in Sioux City, Iowa, at 7 p.m. Monday. Should the Knights face a different team in the first round, the match date will be Tuesday.

MLC 3,

Northwestern (Roseville) 1

In the Knights' first match of the day, MLC advanced past the Northwestern Eagles (21-14) with a 15-7, 14-16, 15-10, 15-9 win.

After a sluggish first game for the Eagles, Northwestern won the second game behind seven kills from Holly Stanke and six more from Anna Anderson. MLC took the third and fourth games, but the Eagles contested each game, rallying from a 5-0 deficit in the third game and a 6-0 deficit in the fourth.

Northwestern put three players in double figures for kills, led by Anderson's 15. Emily Buchner added 13 for the Eagles and Stanke had 12 kills.

MLC got 33 kills in the match from the Gawrisch sisters, Lisa leading the Knights with a match-high 21. Kramer recorded 19 and Holub added 10 kills for MLC.

Emily Hahnke led MLC with 37 set assists and Nommensen added 28.

In the fourth game, MLC took its 6-0 lead on its first two rotations, getting a 5-0 run on the serve of Emily Hahnke. Northwestern never led in the fourth game, but closed to within two at 7-5 and then within a single point at 9-8 and 10-9.

MLC got the last five points, trading a pair of sides out with the Eagles. Kelly Gawrisch got the Knights started with a cross-court kill to the left side of the Northwestern back row and added two more kills through the block of the Eagles' Stacy Roers.

Holub blasted the match-winning kill through another Roers' block.