The Gustavus volleyball team closed out its regular season with an impressive 3-1 win at St. Mary’s on Wednesday night. The Gusties dropped game one 26-30, but then rallied to win the next three games 30-21, 30-26, 30-24 to close out the match.
The Gusties were led by junior outside hitter Jen Thelemann who recorded a career high 24 kills and posted a .375 attack percentage. Three other Gusties compiled double digit kills including Becca Thompson with 16, Andrea Kron with 14, and Danielle Gimmestad with 11. The team got off to a slow start posting a 0.80 attack percentage in game one, however the Gusties were solid the rest of the way posting team attack percentages of .275 in game two, .203 in game three, and .317 in game four. Sophomore setter also had an impressive match with 63 set assists, and sophomore libero Emily Klein recorded 40 digs.
Andrea Kron and Emily Klein both reached career milestones in the match. Kron compiled her 1,000 career kill (her current total is 1,006), while Klein posted her 1,000 career dig (her current total is 1,038). Kron, a three-year starter at outside hitter becomes the 11th player in Gustavus history to record 1,000 career kills. She leads the team in kills this season with 392. Klein, a two-year starter, becomes the first player in the program’s history to compile 1,000 digs in her first two seasons of competition.
Klein has now recorded 619 kills in 100 games this season and she needs 12 more digs to break the Gustavus single season dig mark which is 630 set by Linn Erickson in 151 games in 1985.
Kron increased her season kill total to 392 which is the fourth highest single season total in the program’s history. She needs eight kills to move past Jill Redebaugh (399) into third place and 16 to move past Jen Churchich (407) into second place. The record for kills in a single season is 507 set by Katie Olstad in 1993.
The Gusties, which finished second in the MIAC regular season standings with a 9-2 record, will host the winner of the Carleton vs. St. Ben’s match on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 7:00 pm in a MIAC Playoff semifinal. The winner will advance to the MIAC Playoff Championship on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 7:00 pm at the site of the highest remaining seed.