No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul 3, Minnesota Crookston 0
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The No. 1 Concordia Golden Bears (14-1, 6-0 NSIC) swept the Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles (6-8, 1-5 NSIC) on Friday night. Concordia extends its winning streak to 12 overall and 24 against UMC. Concordia and Southwest Minnesota State are the only two unbeaten teams remaining in conference play.
CU took care of business in the first set, jumping out to a 7-2 lead en route to a comfortable 25-10 set win to open the match.
Minnesota Crookston responded by scoring seven of the first eight points in an effort to even the match at 1. The Golden Bears fought back by scoring the next five points and eventually reclaiming the lead. The Golden Eagles would make it interesting near the end and cut the CU lead to one at both 23-22 and 24-23 but were unable to ovecome as Concordia took the set 25-23.
The third set began as a battle with the two teams trading points up to a 7-7 score. Concordia stepped it up for the remainder of the set to cruise to a 25-14 set win to sweep the match.
No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth 3, Upper Iowa 0
DULUTH, Minn. -- The second-ranked Bulldogs (14-1, 5-1 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference) continued to show their dominance at Romano Gymanism, sweeping their fourth consectuive home match to start the 2013 season with a 25-17, 25-22, 25-19 against Upper Iowa (6-9, 2-4 NSIC) on Friday night. UMD is 8-0 against Upper Iowa, and has now won 19 home contests in a row, 17 of those coming via consecutive-set victories.
The Bulldogs stormed out and established control from the start, only trailing 12 times throughout the night. UMD held an early 10-3 advantage in the second set before Upper Iowa closed it to within two (15-13). Each team would trade sideouts for the remainer of the set. After trailing for a portion of the third set, UMD captured the lead and closed out the final set on a 9-3 run.
Senior outside hitter Kate Lange led all players with 17 kills. She also edged her way pass Joclyn Young (1,696) for third all-time in kills with 1,697. Callie Zwettler (1,757) and Vicky Bragegelmann (1,843) are the only two ex-Bulldogs ahead of Lange on the all-time chart.
No. 3 Tampa 3, Saint Leo 2
SAINT LEO, Fla. -- In five-set fashion, No. 3 Tampa stifled Saint Leo's upset attempt with a 3-2 win. Tampa took the thriller by set scores of 25-15, 19-25, 25-23, 19-25, 15-12.
The Spartans improve to 11-1 on the season with a 3-0 mark in Sunshine State Conference play while the Lions dip to 10-5 record and 0-2 in SSC meetings.
Sophomore Jessica Wagner sported a .455 attack percentage with seven kills while outside hitter Berkley Whaley amassed 17. Setter Gina Clarke posted a double-double as the freshman notched 21 assists and 16 digs. Libero Frances Cardenas led all players with 20 total digs for the squad.
The UT team blocked 10 SLU attacks, with Meagan Burke tallying six. Sophomores Marissa Lisenbee and Wagner stopped three apiece while Whaley picked up four.
No. 4 Central Missouri 3, Central Oklahoma 0
WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- The fourth-ranked Jennies beat Central Oklahoma in consecutive sets on Friday night 25-14, 25-12, 25-18 at the UCM Multipurpose Building. The Jens improve to 16-0 overall, 5-0 in the MIAA.
The Jennies won seven of the first ten points in the first set, with two kills from Taylor Goodness, and one from Julia Bates, Haley Thompson and Carly Sojka. Central Missouri won the next four points, with two kills from Becca Blaise and two attack error on the Bronchos, to make the score 11-3. Central Oklahoma fought back, but was unable to score more than two points at a time before the Jennies put them back on defense. An attack error from the Bronchos ended set one at 25-14. Goodness with four kills, Thompson, Sojka, Blaise, and Maddie Jones all with three kills.
The Central Missouri won the first two points of the set with a kill from Jones and Goodness. Central Oklahoma was able to register only one point before the Jennies scored three more, to make the score 5-1. The Bronchos and Jennies took turns, scoring back and forth until the score reached 8-4, when the Jennies scored three consecutive points. The Jennies maintained a four point lead, and at 16-11 widened the gap to a ten point lead, 20-11. The Bronchos were able to score only one point before the Jennies railed in the last four points, two kills from Jones and one from Sojka, to end set two. Jones and Goodness both at five kills, Sojka had four, in the second set.
Central Missouri started the final set of the evening winning three points at the start. The Bronchos almost caught Central Missouri at 5-4, when the Jennies scored four points to make the score 8-4. Central Oklahoma finally caught the Jennies at 8-8, for the second tie score of the entire match, when the Jennies rolled in eight of nine points, five of which were kills by Jones, to make the score 17-9. Central Oklahoma was not able to close the gap, and the Jennies ended the set with three consecutive points. A kill each from Goodness and Lauren Dudgeon and a attack error from Central Oklahoma ended the match.
No. 5 Nebraska-Kearney 3, Emporia State 0
KEARNEY, Neb. -- Senior Ashley Leitner and sophomore MJ Massanet each had 10 kills, and freshmen Bailey Sokolowski and Erin Seele both hit more than .500, to help No. 5 Nebraska-Kearney sweep Emporia State (-18, -14, -22) on Friday night in Kansas.
Improving to 38-7 all-time against the Hornets (7-6, 1-5), UNK is now 14-1 (4-0).
This also was Rick Squiers 700th win as a college coach. He has won 466 matches at UNK, another 206 at Hastings and 28 more at Seward (Kans.) County C.C. Including time as a high school coach, Squiers overall coaching mark is 773-155.
Hitting a solid .321, the Lopers trailed just once in the match as six different players had five or more kills. Leitner reached her kill total in 27 swings while also supplying 11 digs and a solo block. This is her second consecutive double-double and third such effort of the year.
No. 7 Angelo State 3, Eastern New Mexico 0
SAN ANGELO, Texas -- Maddie Huth had 14 kills and Shelby Wilt contributed 21 digs to help lead Angelo State to a Lone Star Conference sweep (25-13, 25-23, 25-17) of Eastern New Mexico on Friday at the Junell Center.
The No. 7 Belles (11-2, 4-0 LSC) extended their regular-season home winning streak to 24 matches will now face No. 11 West Texas A&M (13-3, 3-0 LSC) on Saturday. WT also took care of its Friday match, winning in four sets at Tarleton State.
"We are trying to be consistent this season and that's what we did tonight," Huth, who also had a .407 hitting percentage and two blocks in the match, said. "We weren't going to overlook them just because we have a big match tomorrow. This was good and tomorrow should be a fun game."
Wilt had her season high with the 21 digs, while setter Maggi Jo Keffury supplied 42 assists and eight digs. The Belles hit .236 in the match and limited the Zias (4-9, 2-2 LSC) to a .049 hitting percentage. Angelo State committed only 16 attacking errors on the night and had nine players contribute digs on the defensive side of the court.
No. 7 Southwest Minnesota State 3, Mary 0
BISMARCK, N.D. -- Southwest Minnesota State hit a season-high .368 to sink Mary in consecutive sets (25-12, 25-15, 25-17) in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference action on Friday night. SMSU improved to 11-3, 6-0 in the NSIC with the win, while U-Mary dropped to 3-10, 0-6 in the NSIC.
Whitney Burmeister led SMSU offensively with 13 kills and also dug out eight attacks in the match. Burmeister was the only Mustang to reach double-digits in kills. McKell Anderson had a solid night for the Mustangs as she recorded nine kills on 19 attacks (.368).
U-Mary struggled to get things together offensively as the Marauders committed 20 errors and only managed 25 kills in the match. U-Mary finished with a .062 hitting percentage (25-20-81).
No. 10 Wayne State (Neb.) 3, MSU Moorhead 0
MOORHEAD, Minn. -- Double-doubles from Katie Hughes and Cori Hobbs lifted No. 10 Wayne State (Neb.) to a 3-0 sweep against MSU Moorhead Friday in Northern Sun Conference volleyball played at Nemzek Hall in Moorhead, Minnesota. Scores of the match were 25-18, 25-21 and 25-20. Wayne State is now 12-2 on the season with the win and 4-2 in the NSIC while MSU Moorhead drops to 10-4 and 3-3 in league play.
The first set saw WSC jump out to an early 9-3 lead. MSUM pulled within one point at 15-14, but WSC scored the next four points and took a 19-14 lead and went on to win the first set 25-18 despite making eight attack errors.
The Wildcats never trailed in the second set, taking a 6-2 lead while never letting the Dragons get closer than three points the rest of the set as WSC won 25-21.
Wayne State had to play from behind in the third set as the 'Cats trailed 12-8 and 16-13 before making a rally. With the score tied at 20-20, WSC used a MSU Moorhead attack error, kills from Cori Hobbs and Katie Beiermann and back to back service aces from Hughes to close out the set with a 25-20 win.
