No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul 3, Minnesota-Mankato 0
MANKATO, Minn. -- Concordia-St. Paul (20-1, 12-0 NSIC) swept Minnesota State (8-11, 4-8 NSIC) on Tuesday night at Taylor Center. The Golden Bears completed the regular season sweep of MSU, taking all six sets in the two matches. Concordia has now won 18 matches in a row, its longest streak since a 44 game streak in 2010-2011.
CU used an 8-0 run to turn a 9-9 tie in the first set into a 17-9 lead. Concordia cruised the rest of the way to a 25-15 set win to jump out to a 1-0 lead.
The second set was a tight battle throughout much of the set with the Golden Bears holding a slight lead. The set stayed close at 20-17 before the Golden Bears grabbed the last five points to take a 2-0 advantage.
The Mavericks fought back from a 9-6 deficit in the third to take a lead at 10-9 before Concordia responded with a six point run to regain the lead at 15-10. Minnesota State was unable to get any closer than three and dropped the third and final set 25-17.
No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth 3, St. Cloud State 0
ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- A few days after suffering its first home defeat of the 2013 campaign, Minnesota-Duluth responded in a convincing matter defeating Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference foe St. Cloud State in consecutive sets (25-20, 25-13, 25-13) to amass their 20th win of the year.
UMD, who owns an all-time series record of 64-33 against St. Cloud State, found themselves in a 15-15 tie midway through the first set but closed the set on a 10-5 run. After surviving the initial surge, the Bulldogs overwhelmed the Huskies in the final two games of the match with identical 25-13 scores.
"We got stronger as the match went on," head coach Jim Boos said. "I didn't like the start, too many errors, but we were able to overcome it. But after that, to have only three errors in the final 52 swings. It was a great bounce back victory."
Sophomore setter Ashley Hinsch delivered 34 assists and distributed the ball evenly to seven different players that hit .376 collectively on the night and a startling .882 in the third set.
Sioux Falls (S.D.) 3, No. 6 Southwest Minnesota State 2
MARSHALL, Minn. -- Sioux Falls rallied to win the final three sets and stun No. 6 Southwest Minnesota State 3-2 on Tuesday night. USF won the match by scores of 15-25, 19-25, 27-25, 25-16 and 15-13. SMSU committed 31 errors and was blocked 18 times in the loss.
It was the first loss to USF in series history and the first loss at home since No. 10, 2012, when the Mustangs fell to Concordia-St. Paul in front of a record crowd of 2,152.
The Mustangs were without reigning NCAA Freshman of the Year Emilee Gutzmer who was held out of the game due to an injury. Rachel Westby forfeited her libero jersey and took over the setting duties. Westby filled in remarkably as the senior tallied a season-high 62 assists for the Mustangs. Westby also managed seven digs in the match.
Westby spread the ball around as four Mustangs reached double-digit kill totals in the match. Abbey Thissen led with 17, while Whitney Burmeister, Claire Sames and Nico Schmidt each had 15. Burmeister also dug out 10 Cougar attacks to record her ninth career double-double.
No. 9 Nebraska-Kearney 3, Missouri Western State 0
KEARNEY, Neb. -- Nebraska-Kearney got 23 total kills from outside hitters Ashley Leitner and MJ Massanet to sweep Missouri Western State (25-21, 25-10, 25-15) on Tuesday night at the Health & Sports Center.
UNK improves to 19-3 (5-2) while the Griffons drop below the .500 mark at 11-12 (4-5).
Hitting a solid .343 on the night, Kearney led the entire first set but had to fight to grab a 1-0 lead in the match.
Down seven, Western reeled off four consecutive points to make the score 20-17 and force the Lopers to take a timeout. The spurt featured a kill and ace by Amanda Boender and two unforced UNK errors.
UNK countered with five kills to close out the Griffons, two coming freshman middle Bailey Sokolowski. The Lopers then dominated the next stanza, hitting .519 (15-1-27) while Western had more errors than kills.
Western put up more of a battle in the final set but UNK used a 7-2 run to open up a 22-14 cushion. This stretch featured a block and kill by sophomore setter Erin Seele.
