The No. 19 University of Minnesota Duluth Volleyball team continued their sweeping streak, beating the Minnesota State Moorhead Dragons in three straight sets, 25-20, 26-24, and 25-16. The Bulldogs had 52 kills and a .378 hitting percentage in the match, the fourth-highest amount for each so far the season. With the win, the Bulldogs have now won thirty straight sets. The Bulldogs are now 14-1 on the season and 7-0 in the NSIC, while the Dragons are 10-6 and 3-4 in the NSIC.
Paige Decker and Madeline Guetzkow led the way for UMD with 16 and 15 kills respectively. Ava Jones had 41 assists for the Bulldogs, while Kenzie Kiminski and Julianne Hon led the way defensively with 11 and 9 digs.
The Bulldogs had several strong hitting performances, with Ava Jones (.800), Paige Decker (.789) and Madeline Guetzkow (.480) bringing strong offense to the Bulldogs win. Guetzkow also had three of the Bulldogs seven aces in the contests.
The first set was close throughout, with the Bulldogs never gaining a comfortable edge on the Dragons. However, UMD broke out at the end, scoring four of the last five points to take the set after the Dragons got within two. The Bulldogs got 16 kills to the Dragons eight.
UMD found themselves in a tight bind in the second set. Another close battle with the Dragons saw themselves nearly lose the set, falling behind 21-23, but back to back kills by Madeline Guetzkow helped propel the Bulldogs to an eventual 26-24 set victory. The second set saw the Bulldogs get 19 kills, compared to the Dragons 15.
The Bulldogs were able to break away in the third set, and took a solid 25-16 victory, with Ava Jones getting the last two kills to seal the victory. The Bulldogs saw 17 kills to the Dragons 10 and got a hitting percentage of .583 in the third set.
The Bulldogs go back on the road against No. 5 Concordia-St. Paul on Friday, October 2nd. First serve is set for 6:00 p.m.
