UMD Claims NSIC Title

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

The University of Minnesota Duluth claimed its second consecutive Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference/U.S. Bank Tournament championship and an automatic berth into the NCAA II Central Region Tournament with a three-set sweep of No. 7 Wayne State (Neb.) College at Romano Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.

No. 2 UMD (31-1) ran its winning streak to 25 matches by playing nearly error-free volleyball, hitting .366 as a team and playing stellar defense with four players reaching double-digit digs.

HIGHLIGHTS
• UMD knocked down 13 blocks with junior middle blocker Monica Turner and sophomore middle Sydnie Mauch leading the way with five each, while junior outside Mariah Scharf had three solo blocks. Turner also knocked down 11 kills for the Bulldogs while senior right side hitter Maddy Siroin led UMD in that category with 13. UMD junior setter Ashley Hinsch had 42 assists on UMD’s 47 kills.
• Senior libero Julie Rainey‘s 15 and senior outside hitter Katie Ledwell‘s 14 led the Bulldogs from a defensive save standpoint, but Siroin and Hinsch each added 11 on the back end of a double-double to go with three blocks each.
• UMD’s Hinsch, Scharf, Siroin, and Mauch were all named to the All-Tournament Team for their efforts, joining Wayne State sophomore middle hitter Alyssa Frauendorfer and junior outside hitter Katie Hughes.

The Bulldogs hit .400 in an opening set that proved to be the least dominant victory of the match, taking the games 25-21, 25-15, and 25-10. The second set may have been the best for UMD as the team opened up an 11-4 lead before conceding a kill, giving up points on four errors before Frauendorfer finally knocked down Wayne’s first kill of the set to make the score 12-5. The Bulldogs answered with a six-point run fueled by three blocks, including a pair of solos by Scharf. The third set again saw UMD jump out early, leading 10-2 before Wayne State would put a rally together, but it was too little too late becuase the Bulldogs regained control and scored eight straight points, fueled by the serving of freshman defensive specialist Kelly Madison, who dropped in a pair of service aces and kept the Wildcats out of syste as they erred three times to keep UMD’s run alive. The Bulldogs had just five hitting errors in the final two sets compared to 18 by Wayne State. After taking a 21-20 lead in the first set, UMD never trailed or tied WSC the rest of the way.

UP NEXT
UMD will now await the NCAA II Championship selection show tomorrow evening at 9:00 p.m. to learn their opponent in the NCAA II Central Region Tournament which will begin this Thursday at the top seed – a position the Bulldogs hope to claim for the second consecutive season. UMD, the Great American Conference tournament champion Arkansas Tech, and Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association regular season champion Central Missouri each earn automatic bids, and the next five regionally ranked teams will fill out the bracket.