The No. 17 University of Minnesota Duluth Volleyball Team relied heavily on its underclassmen to claim an 18-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 15-11 victory at Minnesota Crookston Thursday night at Lysaker Gymnasium. UMD improved to 15-2 on the season and 8-2 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) play with the win, while the Golden Eagles fell to 6-12 overall and 0-10 in league action.
 
The Bulldogs, recently hampered by injury and illness, had five freshmen, two redshirt freshmen and three sophomores in action during the match. Senior Kylie Broten and junior Madison Reed were the only upperclassmen available for UMD. Broten hit .417 with 12 kills and four total blocks and Reed had a team-high 22 digs and a career-best nine assists.    
 
Freshmen Mollie Rupp and Ella Chandler led the Bulldogs offensively with 14 kills apiece. Rupp matched her career-high with 19 digs to register her fourth double-double of the season and second-straight. In just her second-career appearance, Chandler nearly missed her first-career double-double with nine digs and added two service aces and a block assist, all career-bests. Fellow rookie Kendra Behrens hit .467 with a career-high eight kills, and sophomore Elyse Karrels added a career-best eight kills, three total blocks and two digs.   
 
Sophomore setter Ava Jones dished out 50 assists and totaled 17 digs and three kills for her third double-double of the season. It was the sixth time this season that Jones tallied 50 or more assists.
 
The Bulldogs outhit the Golden Eagles, .204 to .155 and had 63 kills to Minnesota Crookston's 60 kills. The Maroon and Gold also led the home team in assists (62-59), digs (90-89) and team blocks (10.0-7.0).
 
After dropping the opening set, the Bulldogs started to find their groove in the second set. They took an early 9-5 lead on a kill from Broten that capped off an 8-1 run. But, a 9-4 run from the Golden Eagles put UMD behind by one, 13-14. UMD answered back with a 5-0 run that included two service aces from Chandler and a kill from Rupp to go ahead 18-14. The home team managed to pull within one point, 21-20, but the Bulldogs closed it out with a 4-1 run which included two kills from Chandler.
 
A back-and-forth third set that consisted of 13 tie scores and four lead changes eventually went to the Golden Eagles, but that is when the Bulldogs dug deep to win the next two sets. In the fourth, the two squads were even through the first 18 points, before UMD used a 4-0 run to take a 13-9 advantage. It would lead by as many as seven points in the stanza, 23-16, and kills from Chandler and Behrens closed it out, evened the match, 2-2, and forced a decisive fifth set.
 
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 4-1 lead on kills from Karrels and Rupp and a service ace and kill from Behrens to open the fifth set, but errors by the visitors let Minnesota Crookston back into the set and evened the score, 5-5. Back-to-back kills from Chandler gave the lead back to UMD and a kill from Karrels extended its lead to three, 10-7.  Rupp's kill forced the Golden Eagles to take a timeout at 13-10, before back-to-back kills from Broten gave the win to the Bulldogs.
 
UMD returns home to face Minnesota State Moorhead Saturday at 2 p.m.