Call it a sequel in honor of Friday the 13th.

In eerily similar fashion to last season's 3-1 victory over Minnesota State University Moorhead, the University of Minnesota Duluth got off to a slow start dropping game one but then rallied for three straight one-sided victories over the Dragons to pick up the Bulldogs' fifth-straight Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victory heading into the regular season finale.

The headline read "smoke, but no fire" in 2014, and the same was true in Duluth on Friday evening as MSU Moorhead (15-12, 8-11 NSIC) put a scare into the No. 9 UMD (21-7, 14-5 NSIC) and its winning streak with a 25-22 game one victory. The Bulldogs asserted their dominance from there forward: 25-11, 25-16, and 25-18 in games two through four.

The Dragons leapt out to a 4-0 lead and eventually stretched that to 13-6 before the Bulldogs began a comeback attempt, actually out-scored MSUM 17-12 the rest of the way in game one but falling 25-23 in the opening frame. Fortune remained in favor of the Bulldogs the rest of the way as they took the rematch in four. Junior middle blocker Sydnie Mauch led UMD with 12 kills last year against the Dragons, and this time around, she collected 12 kills again. It would only match freshman right-side hitter Sarah Kelly for the third-highest total on the night as outside hitters Mariah Scharf (Sr.) and Taylor Wissbroecker (Jr.) terminated 19 and 14 balls, respectively. Senior setter Ashley Hinsch collected 60 kills, which not only surpassed Rhaya Tomberlin ('89) for fourth-most in a Bulldog career but also put her within 77 of third place all-time as she now sits at 5,460.

After making six attack errors in game one, the Bulldogs made just seven the rest of the way, hitting .393 on the night while holding the Dragons to a .183 attack percentage. MSU Moorhead had just four errors in game one, but 16 between the second and third games, putting them significant behind as UMD just kept getting stronger. Still, sophomore outside hitter Carly Masloski collected a match-high 20 kills for the Dragons while senior setter Casie Baer had 45 assists. Mauch had a career-high nine blocks for the Bulldogs (one solo), who totalled 12 on the night. First-year libero Erin Schindler had 27 digs for UMD while Wissbroecker posted 18 to round out a double-double.

UP NEXT
The No. 9 Bulldogs will hope to ride the momentum of a five-match winning streak into another rematch as UMD takes on No. 3 Northern State University with revenge on its mind for a three-set sweep at the hands of the Wolves earlier this season. Opening serve is set for 4:00 p.m. in Romano Gym.