St. Peter, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus volleyball team will head back into tournament action this weekend when it travels to Minneapolis to take part in the 33rd Annual Augsburg Invitational being held Friday and Saturday, Sept. 6-7 at Si Melby Hall.
The Gusties will begin the weekend with a pair of matches against members of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference when they face UW-Eau Claire at 4:00 p.m. on Court 1 and UW-La Cross later at 8:00 p.m. on Court 2. Gustavus will conclude the tournament with matches against institutions belonging to the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference. The Black and Gold will take on Bethany Lutheran College at 10:00 a.m. on Court 1 before wrapping up the weekend against the University of Northwestern at 12:00 p.m. on Court 2.
Gustavus is coming off a 2-2 showing at the season-opening Ground Round Sugar Loaf Classic held last weekend on the campus of Saint Mary’s University. Despite dropping matches to Illinois Wesleyan (3-2) and Wartburg (3-0) to open the season on Friday, the Gusties bounced back with wins over Dubuque (3-1) and North Park (3-0) on Saturday.
In its combined four matches last weekend, Rachelle Sherden’s squad finished with a team attack percentage of .158. Junior Alyssa Taylor (Trimont, Minn.) led the offense with a total of 33 kills (2.20 kps) and a hitting percentage of .272. Janessa Jahnke (So., Blue Earth, Minn.) finished next in line with 26 kills (2.36 kps) and a .125 attack rate, and Becca Woodstra (Jr., Minnetonka, Minn.) tallied 25 kills (1.92 kps) and hit .143.
Paige Breneman (Sr., Sherburn, Minn.) paced Gustavus’s defensive efforts with 82 digs for an average of 5.47 digs per set. Marisa Morgan (Fy., Rockford, Ill.) did the majority of the setting in her first collegiate volleyball experience. She ended up with 84 set assists and also ranked second on the team in digs with 32. Rachel Arnold (Jr., Kimball, Minn.) also set in all four matches and finished with 37 on the weekend.
The Augsburg College Sports Information Department has created a website to make it easy for fans to follow the live action of the tournament. Augsburg will also be providing live stats for all 16 matches with links available through the tournament website found via the link below.