St. Cloud, Minn- The #6 UMD volleyball team went the distance for the second time in five days in St. Cloud on Tuesday, the Bulldogs surviving a comeback bid from the #7 Huskies to take the match 3-2. UMD improves their record to 16-1 overall and 8-1 in NSIC play with the win. The Bulldogs have accumulated two wins against top-ten opponents in less than a week, the other being against then-#7 Southwest Minnesota State on Friday. 

Right from the get-go, this match had the kind of pace you'd expect out of a battle between two top-ten conference foes. Neither team could build anything close to a notable lead until the Bulldogs took a 10-6 advantage, forcing a timeout out of St. Cloud State. A 7-5 run from the Huskies to make the score 15-13 UMD got a timeout out of Bulldog head coach Jim Boos. This sure seemed to do the trick as the Bulldogs went on a 7-2 run to establish a seven-point lead at 22-15, the biggest lead for either team up to this point. The Huskies did not lie down; they went on a quick 3-0 spurt to make the score 22-18, a run a UMD timeout at 22-17 couldn't break up. Soon enough, they were able to slash that deficit in half at a score of 24-22 UMD. A Phebie Rossi block left the Huskies on the brink of forcing some overtime until Samantha Paulsen had other plans, snagging a big kill to secure the set for the Bulldogs 25-23. Hope Schjenken was impressive in this set, recording five kills on a .500 hitting percentage. Madison Gordon had 14 assists. Along the way, Mary Satori recorded back-to-back service aces.

Rather than waiting around to take a four-point lead in set two, the Bulldogs did it right away, quickly making the score 4-0. This put the Huskies on their heels for much of the set, and for a while, it looked like they wouldn't be able to recover. The Bulldogs relentlessly built and built upon their lead, eventually leaving the score at 14-5 and forcing a timeout out of seasoned Husky head coach Chad Braegelmann. It's been a recurring message throughout this season that there is no magic speech within a timeout to rally a squad, but whatever Braegelmann said in this break was close to it. Slowly but surely, his team started clawing back into the set. Before long, it was 15-9 UMD, and it was Boos' turn to call a timeout. Not long after, it was 18-15- timeout UMD. The Huskies just kept on attacking, eventually knotting up the score at 19-all. The dogs traded blows until a score of 22-22 when UMD's Grace Daak took charge, following up a kill to retake the lead with an assisted block with Cianna Selbitschka to make the score 24-22. As if there couldn't be more parallels between this set and the first in the closing moments, Paulsen again took the set for the Bulldogs 25-23 with a kill, giving them a 2-0 vice grip on the match. As a unit, the Bulldog offense had an even stronger performance in this set than they'd had to open the match, registering 17 total kills compared to their earlier effort of 15. Grace Daak had a team-high five kills on a .444 hitting percentage. Gordon again had 14 assists. 

The Huskies had shown more than enough heart and determination throughout both of the first two sets- they just kept coming up short. The St. Cloud State squad that hit the court to start the third set was sick of this result. This time, they decided to jump out to an early 8-4 lead of their own, forcing Boos to burn one of his timeouts. Though it was an unfamiliar spot for them thus far in the match, the Bulldogs didn't back down from the challenge of rallying back in the set. They had the Husky lead down to just two at a score of 12-10 before St. Cloud silenced this rally with a 5-2 run of their own, knocking out the last of UMD's timeouts in the process. Once again, the Bulldogs dug back to within two at 18-16. Once again, the Huskies put things into overdrive in response. St. Cloud State went on a feverous 7-2 run to close out the third set, taking it 25-18 and maintaining their pulse within the match. UMD's team kill tally fell to 10 in set three, their lowest total so far. Selbitschka let the way with 5 kills. Gordon had a team-leading eight assists.

The Bulldogs fared much better in the early goings of the fourth set, looking more like the UMD squad that had taken a 2-0 match lead. The issue is that the Huskies looked good, too. The two squads were in lockstep until a score of 11-10 St. Cloud State when the Huskies rallied off a crippling 7-0 run that both of UMD's timeouts couldn't solve. From there, it was a kind of morbid waiting game until the end of the set, the Bulldogs still battling (and forcing a St. Cloud State timeout at 22-16) but in too deep of a rut to make much progress. Eventually, the Huskies closed out the set 25-17 and completed the first step of their miraculous comeback effort in the match by knotting things up at 2 apiece and forcing a fifth and final frame. Once again, UMD had just 10 total team kills. The team-lead in kills went to Daak with just three. Gordon again had a team-high eight assists. 

It's never over until it's over, and though the Bulldogs had looked outmatched in the last two sets, their early match advantage was enough to keep them alive to see a winner-take-all fifth set. A quick 2-0 lead for the Huskies made matters look bleak, but then something happened for the first time in half of the match that threw things into flux- St. Cloud State started to look human. At a score of 2-2, the Huskies made three-straight attacking errors to suddenly leave the Bulldogs with a 5-2 advantage and a break in the form of a St. Cloud State timeout. It seemed for a moment that the timeout had reinvigorated the Husky squad, as they quickly went on a 2-0 run to bring things back to within a point at 5-4. A 4-2 counterpunch from the Bulldogs forced the Huskies out of their last timeout of the match at a score of 9-6 UMD. Once again, a break served St. Cloud State well- they kept things close and battled back to within two at a score of 11-9, prompting a UMD timeout. It's hard to imagine what happened in this huddle, but Boos will definitely want to incorporate it more often- his squad went on a dominant 5-1 run out of the break to take the set 15-11 and put an exclamation point on a hard-fought 3-2 match victory. Sydney Lanoue and Selbitschka were massive for the Bulldogs in this closeout set, each of them racking up four kills on hitting percentages above .300 (.333 for Lanoue and .600 for Selbitschka). Gordon had nine assists. 

The cumulative match numbers for the Bulldogs certainly reflect those of a squad that had just competed through yet another gauntlet of a match. Four Bulldogs again ended the night with 10+ kills. Daak had 15 kills, tied for her season-high with a match against Ashland back on September 2. Selbitschka had 14. Both Lanoue and Schjenken closed out the night with 11. Gordon ended the night with 53 total assists, her personal best since she had 66 in the other match the Bulldogs played on September 2, one against Missouri-St. Louis. That match also went five sets. 

Defensively,  four Bulldogs recorded double-digit digs. Selbitschka had 12. Lanoue had 14, Gordon had 15 and Kaylyn Madison had a team-leading 15. In terms of blocks, it was a two-way tie for the team lead between Paulsen and Schjenken, with each recording five block assists. The Bulldogs had 10 total blocks as a team. 

St. Cloud State was led by Linsey Rachel's 18 kills on an impressive .349 hitting percentage. Alenna Shimon had the team-high in assists with 33. Kenzie Foley led the Huskies in digs with 20. Phebie Rossi had herself a night in the blocking department, leading all players with eight block assists and a solo block. 

Boos was pleased with his team's ability to flip the script late and return to the form they'd been playing at earlier in the match, cooling down the surging Huskies in the process. 

"Proud of how they responded late in the fourth set to get some momentum back heading into the fifth set," Boos said.  "Then in the fifth, we played aggressive and attacked much like in the first two sets. It was a great response after St. Cloud State controlled the third and fourth sets and had momentum in their favor." 

On a bigger scale, Boos likes the way that the Bulldogs' resume of tough conference victories over just five days reflects onto his squad.

"This was a tough three match road trip against high quality opponents, so to find a way to win all three shows the grit and determination this team has," Boos said.