The Bulldogs closed out the regular season with a 3-0 win over Minot State in Romano on Saturday. With the victory, the Bulldogs head into postseason play with a 25-3 record. 

Just as they had against Mary, the Bulldogs started off the match with a fast batch of half-a-dozen kills. This time around, those came in the form of a 6-1 run. A pair of Beaver kills supplemented by two Bulldog service errors contributed to Minot's comeback bid, leaving the score at 10-7 UMD. The Bulldogs didn't budge- they countered with a 4-0 run to take the set's biggest lead to this point at a score of 14-7. As fate would have it, this run was capped off by a Mary Satori service ace. Minot would again start to claw back, and they'd again do it at the expense of some Bulldog mistakes. A Jenna Pahlen service ace followed by a UMD attack error helped cut the lead down to four at 15-11. This sparked a timeout from the Bulldogs. 

From that point onwards, UMD found itself on the good side of a cycle it had been stuck in against the Marauders. Try as Minot might, and for as close as they'd get, the Beavers could never fully even the score. 17-14 UMD turned to 19-14 UMD. A three-point Beaver run to bring the score from 23-18 to 23-21 was met by a Bulldog point to put Minot on the brink of set defeat. They'd get a point back to make it 24-22, but a Sydney Lanoue kill settled the score at 25-22 and gave UMD a 1-0 match advantage. Lanoue led her club in kills for the set with five. The Bulldogs' 17 total assists were distributed primarily between Madison Gordon (eight) and Maddi Kealy (six). 

In general, the Bulldogs were a well-oiled machine offensively in the first frame. Three different UMD players had four kills or more. Grace Daak got her four tallies on a hitting percentage of .571. Samantha Paulsen went a perfect four-for-four. Even libero Kaylyn Madison got in on the fun with a recorded kill, her first of the season. All things considered, the Bulldogs hit for .317 as a team through the first frame. 

Inevitably, UMD hit its quick-six-point quota again in the second set at a score of 6-2. Once again, this wasn't enough to eliminate the Beavers. Soon enough, they had the score at 8-6 UMD. 

The Bulldogs had very little interest in keeping things close for very long this time around. 

From the 8-6 mark, UMD closed the set on a 17-4 run to take the frame at 25-10 and take a lead in the match at 2-0. Once the Beavers' distance from the lead went from fingertips at 8-6 to arms-length at 12-6, the closest Minot was able to get again was within five. 

The UMD offense was equally as sharp in the second- in fact, it was even more efficient. The Bulldogs hit for a whopping .464 as a unit. It was a total group effort- the highest kill tally was just three, an honor shared by Samantha Paulsen and Lanoe. 

Enthusiasts of the short lived fast half-a-dozen era of UMD volleyball will be sad to hear that the Bulldogs' streak of such efforts to start a set ended in the third frame. UMD did hold the lead at 6-4, but each and every one one of those six points had been a grind. In fact, it had been the Bulldogs that had to come from behind early when Minot took a 2-0 lead, just their second advantage of the match.

Regardless, once the Bulldogs settled in with the lead, margin by margin, they built upon it. 6-4 turned to 10-5. 10-5 was soon 14-8, which was soon 17-9… you get the idea. Minot probably did, too, but getting something doesn't mean you have to accept it. Instead, the Beavers pushed back. A 19-11 UMD lead quickly evaporated down to just 19-15. This drew a UMD timeout. 

All this Bulldog-initiated break really needed to accomplish was to simmer down Minot's pressure, and that's exactly what it did. Rather than going on a lopsided run, Minot finished the set in a dead-heat with UMD, marginally winning the points battle out of the break at a score of 6-5. For the Bulldogs, the team with the already-established lead, they took this result. In fact, they rode it all the way to a 25-20 set victory and a 3-0 sweep of the match. Lanoue matched her first set output of five kills to lead the team, but this time, she attacked with much higher efficiency. She hit at .300 in the final frame.

Lanoue made her senior night all the more special by leading the team in kills for the match with 13. Madison Gordon had a team-high 30 assists. Lanoue also led the team in digs with 17. Three different Bulldogs had three block assists- Grace Daak, Hope Schjenken and Lanoue (who was clearly all over the court Saturday.

Minot was led offensively by  Kylie Koontz and Taylor Wyatt, who tied for the team lead in kills with seven. Jaina Macaulay had a team-high 15 assists. Kendal Braun had a Minot-high of nine digs and Jenna Pahlen led the way in blocks with three block assists. 

BITS FROM BOOS:
On a day like Saturday, there was no shortage of things to celebrate. Start with a co-headliner of a promo in both Parents' Night and Senior Night, an opportunity to thank both long-tenured Bulldogs and their families for all that they've done within the program. UMD's offense seemed to have a typical UMD offense kind of night. And, of course, it was all wrapped up in a bow with a victory. 

In spite of all of this, the Bulldogs find themselves at a point in the season where now more than ever, they cannot become complacent. Even a 25-3 team on the right side of a 2-0 weekend in which they won six of seven sets can find things to work on to make it the best version of itself possible. That's where UMD head coach Jim Boos' mind was after Friday's match.

Before anything else, credit was given to a Minot State team that fought tooth-and-nail with the Bulldogs for much of the match. It's not that it was the Beavers in particular giving the Bulldogs trouble that gave Boos pause- it's that his team struggled to begin with. 

"In watching on film, there's a definitive improvement in (Minot's) group," Boos said. "They're a young group- a lot of sophomores and freshmen…  I certainly expected it to be a better battle than what it was early, and it was. They didn't make anything easy for us. For whatever reason, we just weren't overly connected this weekend with what we were doing, so we've got some things to iron out here as we head into the conference tournament this upcoming weekend, but yeah, you give them credit. They came out, they played hard, they showed a lot of effort."
What could that "whatever reason" be? One theory that was presented centered around the team's lineup changes throughout recent weekends. But this one didn't seem to stick. The reality is it could be one of a million different things. At the end of the day, Boos is understanding. Plus, two wins are still two wins. 

"When we rested Cianna a couple weekends ago up in Crookston and Bemidji, I felt like we were still pretty in-sync and what we were doing still held true," Boos said. "It's the nature of where we're at- you never know exactly what they've got going on behind the scenes with exams and other things in their world as well. Sometimes we as coaches forget: they're not just volleyball players. (They're students), they've got a social life, they've got family in town- there's a lot going on for them. It's not always as simple as (carrying) over what we've worked on in practice to what we're doing today in the game… ultimately, we've got to be good with just getting the wins taken care of and now moving on to what's next."

Right after the match, it was impossible for Boos to know the particulars of what that path forward would look like. To him, though, two things were clear: it would be a demanding one, and the Bulldogs would have to come prepared. 

"This league, obviously it's shown itself to be this all year long," Boos said. "Everyone is capable, and if they're in that eight-team tournament, they are fully capable of winning the tournament and can give you some trouble… we know the road will be difficult and steep with whoever it is, so we just have to make sure we're ready to play, and we can't look past what's right in front of us, which is going to be whoever we have in the first round. It's going to be a really good team who's playing good volleyball right now."