The Gustavus women’s volleyball team evened its MIAC record at 5-5 with a convincing 3-0 win over Hamline on Wednesday night. Anne Osthus and Tara Houlihan powered the Gustie attack with 17 kills each, while setter Rachel Batalden compiled 50 assists.
Coach Kari Eckheart’s squad looked sharp from the beginning as they cruised to a 30-17 win in game one. Game two was very competitive until Gustavus rode the serve of Nicole Nesseth for four consecutive points to take a 27-22 lead. The Gusties closed out the second game at 30-23. Game three was almost identical to game two as the score remained close until Nesseth again put together a string of five consecutive service points to allow the Gusties to pull away and close out the match at 30-22.
Sophomore middle hitter Anne Osthus had a big night as she knocked down 17 kills in 28 attempts with only two errors for a .536 attack percentage. Osthus also contributed four digs and three block assists. Sophomore outside hitter Tara Houlihan also had a productive night as she recorded 17 kills in 33 attempts with four errors for a .394 attack percentage. Houlihan also added 21 digs and two block assists.
As a team, the Gusties were impressive on the attack as they recorded 58 kills in 131 attempts with 17 errors for an attack percentage of .313. In addition, the team posted 10 service aces, 60 digs and 10 block assists.
Senior hitter Jessica Schaetze recorded 11 kills in game which moved her into eighth place in career kills at Gustavus with 1,046. She needs 33 kills in the Gusties final three regular season matches to move into sixth place on the all-time list.
Junior setter Rachel Batalden became only the second player at Gustavus to record 1,000 assists in a season in the match. Jessica Lobben achieved the feat three times from 1993 to 1995. Batalden has now compiled 1,032 assists in 24 matches this year. The single season assist mark is 1,288 set by Lobben in 1993. Batalden pushed her career assist total to 2,759 which ranks third all-time at Gustavus. She needs 10 more assists to move past Keri Urosevich into second place all-time. Lobben holds the career assist mark with 4,201.