The No. 19 University of Minnesota Duluth volleyball team wrapped its regular season road schedule with a four-set loss at RV Northern State, 25-12, 19-25, 16-25, 22-25, Saturday afternoon in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) action at Wachs Arena in Aberdeen, S.D. The loss dropped the Bulldogs' record to 19-7 on the season and 12-6 in NSIC play, while the Wolves improved to 19-7 overall and 14-4 in conference play.
Paige Decker led all players with 16 kills on .448 hitting, while adding four total blocks and four digs.
Brietta Tims had 11 kills and
Elyse Karrels had nine kills and four block assists.
Grace Mueller hit .455, matched her career-high with six kills and had three block assists.
Ava Jones distributed 44 assists and tallied eight digs, and
Madison Reed posted a match-best 19 digs to go along with three assists.
UMD outhit the Wolves, .219 to .203, and also held the advantage in kills (52-46), assists (49-45) and blocks (8.0-7.0), while NSU held the edge in service aces (10-1). Digs were even at 51 apiece.
The Bulldogs were once again playing without
Madeline Guetzkow and
Kenzie Kiminski, who collided in the first set vs. MSU Moorhead on Oct. 27.
UMD hit .290 with only one attack error and a .910 sideout percentage in the first set on its way to a 25-12 victory. Tims led the way with four kills, with Decker and Mueller each adding three block assists in the opening frame.
The separation for the Bulldogs came with a 6-1 run on kills from Tims and Decker and multiple errors from the Wolves to make the score 11-6. Another 4-0 run later in the set extended UMD's lead to 19-9, and a 6-3 run secured the opening-set win for the visitors.
The Maroon and Gold fell down early in both the second and third sets and was not able to recover as Northern State was able to get the 25-19 and 25-16 wins to take a 2-1 advantage in the match.
Thanks to kills from Tims, Decker and Johnson, and some Wolves miscues, the Bulldogs jumped ahead early in the fourth set, going ahead by as many as six points, and maintained an advantage through most of the frame. But, a 7-1 run from Northern State evened the set and eventually gave the home team the lead at 21-19. UMD was able to knot the score and take the lead back, 22-21, on a kill from Tims, but four-straight attack errors cut its comeback short.
Decker had six kills on .556 hitting to lead the visitors in the fourth set, while Karrels and
Brooke Aslakson each notched three block assists in the set.
The Bulldogs close out their regular-season schedule at home when they host Minot State and UMary Nov. 6 and Nov. 7 at Romano Gymnasium. The Bulldogs will face the Beavers Friday at 6 p.m. and the Marauders Saturday at 11 a.m. for Senior Day.
