Junior setter Ava Jones secured her 2,000th career assist Friday night as the University of Minnesota Duluth (8-1, 1-0 NSIC) volleyball team opened Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) play with a sweep of the University of Mary, 25-21, 25-11, 25-17, at the McDowell Activity Center in Bismarck, N.D. The victory was UMD's fourth-consecutive sweep dating back to Sept. 4.
Jones reached the milestone on a kill by senior Paige Decker that gave the Bulldogs a 22-9 lead in the second set. She finished with 40 assists and two service aces. Her 40 assists are tied for the 14th-highest single-match total in NCAA Division II this season in a three-set match.
With 2,017 career assists, the Detroit Lakes, Minn., native is three assists away from passing Shelia Brown (1985-86) for 11th on UMD's all-time assists list. She needs 1,423 more assists to crack the program's top 10.
Senior Madeline Guetzkow led all players with 14 kills and added eight digs and three block assists. Decker hit .529 with nine kills and three block assists, while junior Xada Johnson added 10 kills. Freshman Kenzie Kiminski hit .538 with eight kills in her NSIC debut, and junior Elyse Karrels hit .636 with seven kills and two block assists.
Senior Madison Reed paced the Bulldogs defensively with 12 digs and added five assists.
Sophomore Brietta Tims extended her streak of recording at least one service ace to nine matches with two aces. She also had four digs.
As a team, UMD hit .410 with 50 kills, including a .484 hitting percentage and 17 kills in the second set. It marked the Bulldogs' first match hitting above .400 since they hit .418 against MSU Moorhead on Oct. 18, 2025.
UMD held the Marauders (2-7, 0-1 NSIC) to 29 kills and a .140 hitting percentage while holding the advantage in all major statistical categories.
The Bulldogs overcame an early deficit to take the opening set. After falling behind 12-8 and calling timeout, UMD pulled within one at 13-12 before a 4-1 UMary run pushed the deficit back to four points.
Kills from Guetzkow, Jones, Decker and Johnson, combined with Marauder errors, helped the Bulldogs erase the deficit and tie the set at 20-20. UMD then closed on a 5-1 run behind Tims' serve to take the opening frame.
Guetzkow had six kills in the first set, while Johnson and Decker each added three.
UMD jumped to a 6-0 lead in the second set and never looked back. Decker and Guetzkow each had two kills during the opening run, while Kiminski added one kill and Decker and Guetzkow teamed up for a block.
Three consecutive kills by Kiminski extended the Bulldogs' lead to 10-2 before a 5-0 run behind Tims' serving pushed the advantage to 15-3. UMary trimmed the deficit to nine at 17-8, but UMD allowed just three more points the rest of the set.
Decker and Kiminski each had five kills in the second set, while Jones recorded 13 assists and Reed added seven digs. The Bulldogs also collected four team blocks in the frame, led by three block assists from Decker and two from Guetzkow.
UMary held the lead for much of the third set before Decker's kill tied the score at 15-15 and sparked an 11-2 UMD run to close out the set and complete the sweep.
The Bulldogs return to action Saturday at 2 p.m. when they travel to Minot, N.D., to face Minot State at the Minot State Dome.
