St. Cloud, Minn. – The UMD volleyball team opened up their 2022 campaign on the road at the St. Cloud State/Concordia St. Paul Tournament. After falling behind two sets, the Bulldogs rallied to tie it all up at two seats a piece before winning a fifth set thriller over Drury 3-2 (18-25, 22-25, 25-16, 25-14, 21-19).
 
UMD's slow start to both sets one and two allowed Drury to jump out to an early lead. However, the Bulldogs didn't fold, as they stormed back in sets two and three by jumping out to an early lead. Everything would come to a head in the fifth and final set as the Bulldogs and Panthers battled back and forth, trading points until Drury took a 10-8 advantage. UMD would tie it all up at 10-10 following a kill by junior Cianna Selbitschka and an ace from freshman Mary Satori. Following a timeout from the Panthers, both teams would exchange points to tie it at 11 a piece. Following another service ace for the Bulldogs (Madison Gordon), Drury would call timeout. From there, the teams would once again trade points to tie it up at 13-13. Drury would come up with a big block from Chole Rear to set the panthers up for match point. The Bulldogs would not back down, as UMD would take the next two points with kills by Samantha Paulsen. The teams would continue to trade points until UMD would take a 20-19 lead. The Bulldogs would take the match deciding point with a point from Cianna Selbitschka.
  
UMD was led by sophomore Samantha Paulsen who would lead the Bulldogs with 19 kills. Junior Cianna Selbitschka and senior Hope Schjenken would add 16 and 11 kills respectively. Senior Madison Gordon would add 58 assists on the night. Selbitschka and graduate senior Sydney Lanoue would all have double-doubles on the night as Selbitschka had 11 digs/16 kills and Lanoue finished with 25 digs/10 kills.
 
"Although we were disappointed with our start, the team showed resilience by getting back to playing aggressively and with confidence. Sam Paulsen had a big match for us and Syd Lanoue stepped up in the FR and took some big swings in big moments. Hopefully we will carry the momentum forward into our second match of the day," said UMD head volleyball coach Jim Boos. 

Drury was led by Kayli Duncan who finished with 12 kills for the Panthers. The only other Panther in double digits was Stormi Tadlock with 11 kills. Juliana Squire led the team with 17 digs.
 
The Bulldogs returned to the gym in St. Cloud at 3:00 pm to face Oklahoma Baptist. Its first match ever against the Bison (Drury was also the first contest between the two teams).
 
UMD battled during the first set and took the victory 26-24. The Bulldogs then made quick work in the following two sets with dominating wins (25-14, 25-12). UMD was led once again in kills by junior Cianna Selbitschka (14). Madison Gordon paced the Bulldogs with 36 assists.

"Overall pleased with the afternoon match. We had a tough start with 9 service errors in the first set - but kept grinding and found a way to win that set. And from there we settled in and distributed the ball well as we hit .333 as a team," said head volleyball coach Jim Boos. "A good first day for this group but obviously a quick turnaround to play two more tomorrow."
 
The Bison were led by Payton Rink (5 kills) and Abrey Galt (17 assists).

WHO'S NEXT:
The Bulldogs will be back at it tomorrow, Saturday, August 27^th as day two of the St. Cloud State/Concordia St. Paul continues. The Bulldogs will begin match number one of the day against Ashland at 10:00am --- followed by Seattle Pacific at 3:30pm. All matches can be followed via live stats or online at umdbulldogs.com/watch.
 
CLOSING IN:
UMD graduate senior Sydney Lanoue finished the two games with a combined 30 digs. Lanoue sits only 11 digs away from 1,000 for her career.