Despite a career night from sophomore Elyse Karrels, the No. 18 University of Minnesota Duluth Volleyball Team (16-3, 9-3 NSIC) fell to Bemidji State (7-13, 4-8 NSIC) in a tightly-contested five-set match, 25-17, 17-25, 24-26, 25-20, 13-15, Tuesday night at BSU Gymnasium. Karrels hit .750 with a career-high 18 kills on 24 attempts and matched her career-best with six total blocks.
 
Her .750 (18-0-24) hitting percentage is the fourth-highest in NCAA Division II this season on a minimum 20 attempts and is the highest for a Bulldog since Kylie Broten posted a .750 (12-0-16) hitting percentage at MSU Moorhead on Oct. 25, 2024.   
 
Freshman Mollie Rupp also had a solid night for the Bulldogs, as she notched her fifth double-double of the season with 16 kills and 12 digs. Madison Reed anchored the defense with a match-best 20 digs and had eight assists, and Ava Jones dished out 50 assists, had eight digs, three service aces and a pair of block assists.
 
Madeline Guetzkow and Paige Decker saw action on the court for the first time since missing multiple matches due to injury. Guetzkow had nine kills and four block assists in four sets of work, and Decker hit .500 with four kills and a block assist in two sets of action.   
 
The Bulldogs hit .299 compared to .236 for the Beavers, while they also held the advantage in kills (64-62), assists (62-55), digs (71-69), team blocks (8.0-4.0) and points (81.0-78.0).
 
UMD fell behind early in the first set, 5-9, but a kill from Jones sparked a 12-3 run that gave the visitors a 17-12 advantage. A block from Johnson and Broten gave the Bulldogs their largest advantage of the set, 24-15, before a service error from the Beavers ended the set in UMD's favor. Rupp had four kills and six digs in the opening frame, while Guetzkow added three kills and two block assists and Karrels had two kills and three total blocks.  
 
After dropping the next two sets, the Bulldogs battled back for a 25-20 fourth-set victory. They hit .452 with only one attack error and had four service aces. Karrels hit .800 with four kills in the frame and Jones and Julianne Hon each had a pair of service aces. The two teams were even through the first 24 points, before Hon's service ace pushed the Bulldogs ahead by two points, 14-12. Back-to-back errors by the Beavers capped off a 4-0 run for UMD that extended its lead to 20-15. Kills from Karrels, Rupp, Guetzkow and Decker helped close the set and even the match at two sets apiece.
 
The fifth set was a nailbiter. The Bulldogs fell into an early 9-5 hole, but climbed back to within two points of the Beavers 10-8 thanks to kills from Xada Johnson and Karrels, and a block from Karrels and Guetzkow that forced a Bemidji State timeout. Out of the break, the Beavers extended their lead to 14-10, but UMD kept fighting back. It used a 3-0 run, which included kills from Guetzkow and Decker, to pull within one point of the hosts, 14-13, but a kill from BSU's Madison Tripp ended the set and the match.
 
UMD returns home to Romano Gymnasium this weekend for a pair of NSIC contests against Augustana Friday night at 6 p.m. and No. 6 Wayne State (Neb.) Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m.