The No. 15 University of Minnesota Duluth Volleyball Team swept visiting University of Mary 25-16, 25-16, 25-21 Friday night at Romano Gymnasium to improve to 12-1 overall and 5-1 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference action.
 
The Bulldogs are 12-1 for the first time since 2022. The Marauders fell to 4-10 overall and 1-5 in league play.
 
Senior Kylie Broten hit .520 with a match-best 16 kills, while sophomore Xada Johnson added 10 kills and six digs. Freshman Mollie Rupp contributed nine kills and eight digs and junior Madeline Guetzkow had eight kills, seven digs and three service aces. Redshirt freshman middle blocker Grace Mueller made her UMD debut in the victory, tallying six kills.
 
Setter Ava Jones dished out 42 assists and had six digs, and libero Madison Reed led all players with 19 digs and added two service aces.
 
UMD hit .311 in the match and held the Marauders to a .153 mark. The Bulldogs more than doubled up UMary in kills, 50-23.
 
The Bulldogs hit .533 with 19 kills and 12 digs in the opening set to pick up the 25-16 win. Guetzkow and Johnson each had five kills in the set to lead the Maroon and Gold offense, with Guetzkow hitting .833 and Johnson hitting .714. UMD used a 9-3 run to jump out to an early 11-5 lead and never looked back, going on to win by nine points.
 
It was the Marauders that took the early advantage in the second set, but the Bulldogs evened the score 4-4 on a kill from Guetzkow and took their first lead on an error by UMary. A kill from Broten capped the 6-0 run that put the home team ahead 9-4. UMD continued to hold a five-point advantage until the Marauders pulled within three points, 18-15, late in the stanza and forced the Bulldogs to take a timeout. UMD came back into play and rattled off a 7-2 run thanks to four kills from Rupp and three kills from Broten to take a two-set advantage into the break. Broten totaled seven kills in the set and Reed tallied 13 digs.
 
The Maroon and Gold once again overcame an early deficit in the third set, trailing by four points before stringing together a 5-0 run to take its first lead 7-6. The Marauders continued the hang around, but another five-point run from UMD forced UMary to take a timeout with the score 18-14. The Bulldogs stretched their lead to five points 20-15 on a block from Broten and Jones, but the visitors cut it back to three points two more times before a kill from Johnson and a Marauder service error ended the match.
 
The Bulldogs are back in action at Romano Gymnasium Saturday morning when they host Minot State at 11 a.m.