UMD Athletics

Despite strong performances from its bench, the No. 19 University of Minnesota Duluth volleyball team fell to visiting MSU Moorhead in five sets, 12-25, 25-15, 21-25, 25-23, 12-15, Tuesday night in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) action at Romano Gymnasium. The Bulldogs dropped to 18-6 overall and 11-5 in conference play, while the Dragons improved to 12-13 overall and 5-11 in the NSIC.

Senior right side hitter Madeline Guetzkow and freshman outside hitter Kenzie Kiminski collided while diving for a ball in the opening set and missed the remainder of the match. The pair entered the contest averaging a combined 6.46 kills per set, forcing the Bulldogs to rely on their depth to fill the void.

Senior Paige Decker led UMD with 15 kills on .464 hitting, while sophomore Brooke Aslakson recorded a career-high 14 kills on .458 hitting in just her fourth appearance of the season. Junior Xada Johnson added 13 kills, and sophomore Ella Chandler chipped in 12.

Junior Ava Jones continued to steadily lead the offense with her fifth-straight double-double with 52 assists and 12 digs. Sophomore Julianne Hon also tallied 12 digs, while senior Madison Reed posted 11 digs and two service aces. 

As a team, the Bulldogs held the advantage in kills (64-58), assists (60-52) and digs (58-53), but the Dragons had the edge in hitting percentage (.255-.224), service aces (5-4), and total team blocks (9.0-4.0). 
 
The Bulldogs bounced back from an opening-set loss to claim a win in the second set behind a .536 team hitting percentage and six kills from Chandler and five kills from Decker. 

The squads were evenly matched through the first 26 points of the set, before a kill from Aslakson ignited a 10-0 run and gave the Bulldogs a 22-14 advantage. A kill from Decker and two-straight from Chandler closed out the set. Chandler secured five of UMD's final six points of the set. 

After falling in set 3, UMD fought back to secure a fourth-set victory thanks to five kills from Johnson and four from Aslakson. 

The first big advantage came for the Bulldogs at 13-11 thanks to a 3-0 run that included a kill from Johnson and two errors by the Dragons. The visitors were eventually able to even the set at 18-18, but a kill from Decker and an error from MSU Moorhead put UMD's lead back to two, 20-18. The Dragons answered with a 3-0 run to take a 21-20 lead, but Johnson evened it back up 21-21. The teams tied it up two more times before a kill from Aslakson and a block from Aslakson and Decker secured the win and sent the match into a decisive fifth set. 

UMD took an early lead in the fifth set, going ahead 6-4 on a kill from Johnson and eventually taking a 9-6 advantage on a kill from Jones. But, the Dragons continued to chip away at the lead, using a 4-0 run to take a 10-9 lead late. Aslakson evened it back up 10-10 with a kill and UMD went ahead 12-11 on an attack error by MSU Moorhead. The visitors were able to put together a 4-0 run, however, to secure the victory. 

The Bulldogs close out their regular-season road schedule this weekend at Jamestown Friday at 6 p.m. and at RV Northern State Saturday at 1 p.m.