The University of Minnesota Duluth Volleyball team earned its second three-set victory in a row (25-22, 25-22, 25-23) and a perfect three-win record in the Up North Preseason Tournament Saturday against Northern Michigan University.

Senior middle blocker Kylie Broten added another team-leading 12 kills with two blocks, two assisted blocks, and 15 points. Madeline Guetzkow earned another 8 kills in the tournament with two serving aces, one block assist, and six digs to earn 10.5 points on the day.

Defensively, junior Madison Reed set the tone with a career high 28 digs while also tallying two service aces.

As a team, they improve to their second straight three-set victory, the team's first since November of last year (Minot State University and University of Mary), and match last year's 7-0 start to the season. Notably, the team out-blocked the Wildcats 8-2, earned more digs 64-56, and narrowly sent more kills 46-42.

The first set saw an embattled back and forth between the Bulldogs and Wildcats for the beginning 9-9 score. UMD began to creep ahead on a 6-1 scoring run, but Northern Michigan found its footing to bounce back in for a deadlock of 16-16.  The Bulldogs finally pulled away at the 21st point mark, going on a 4-2 scoring run to take the first set 25-22.

The match settled into another back-and-forth scoring run as both teams remained neck and neck until the 9th point, where UMD shot ahead to 17-10, but the Wildcats weren't done yet. Northern Michigan crept in within a point at 21-20 before Ava Jones helped set up Broten and Brietta Tims to push the Bulldogs to a 4-2 scoring run to earn a second set victory at 25-22.

After yet another back-and-forth affair in the third set, this time it would be the Wildcats who pulled ahead 17-10. UMD did not sit idle, firing an unanswered five scores to inch back in at 17-15. Each team traded scores until 20-17, where the Bulldogs launched ahead to finish the set on an 8-3 scoring run to sweep the Wildcats 25-23.

UMD continues the homestand next Friday against the University of Sioux Falls (S.D.) at 6:00 p.m. in Romano Gymnasium.