The No. 25 University of Minnesota Duluth volleyball team dropped three straight sets to the No. 24 University of Minnesota State Mankato on the road, 16-25, 21-25, 23-25, inside the Taylor Center Saturday afternoon. With two losses this weekend, the Bulldogs have dropped to 17-8 overall and 10-8 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).

Brietta Tims led the effort in kills with 14, with a .423 hitting percentage and 15.5 points. Madison Reed led the team in digs with 15. Ava Jones led the team in assists with 33 while also earning 11 digs.

The first set saw UMD fall behind after jumping ahead by two to start with help from a blocked attack by Madeline Guetzkow and Paige Decker. The team then found themselves down 12-6 shortly after putting the rest of the set firmly out of reach for a final of 25-16 by the end.

Entering set two, the Mavericks put the Bulldogs on the back foot early with a 5-1 opening scoring run off the serving effort of Jadyn Lester. UMD slowly chipped away at the lead, bringing it down to 13-12 with five kills by Tims. MSU then rattled off a 6-1 scoring effort to put the lead back to six. The Bulldogs would remain behind by three or more points until the set was sealed at 25-21.

UMD continued to put up a fight in the third set, where the initial scoring run ended up in the Bulldogs' favor at 4-2. The rest of the set saw the lead change hands nearly every three scores until the Mavericks found room to separate at the 20-20 mark. After being tied, MSU rattled off a 4-1 run that put the match point in play, but UMD did not go down, finding two scores between a kill from Tims and an attack error after a block from Kylie Broten. It proved not enough as a UMD service error sealed the set and match with a 25-23 third set score.

The Bulldogs head back to Romano Gymnasium to host Winona State University in a Friday matchup at 6:00 p.m.