Saturday, November 15, 2008

MSU Moorhead 3 #23 Wayne State 2

            MSU Moorhead rallied from a two-set deficit to defeat #23 Wayne State in the Northern Sun Conference regular season finale played Saturday afternoon in Wayne.  After the Wildcats won the first two sets 25-17 and 26-24, the visiting Dragons rallied for 25-20, 25-18 and 15-10 wins in the final three sets to take the match. WSC is now 23-9 overall and 12-8 in the NSIC while MSU Moorhead is 17-15 and 11-9 in league play.

            The statistics were nearly similar with the exception of blocking where the Dragons had 18 blocks with 16 coming in the final three sets while WSC had 11 blocks.  MSUM hit .190 in the match to .189 for the Wildcats with both teams recording 28 hitting errors.

            Freshman Mindy Moody paced Wayne State in hitting with 17 kills and eight blocks followed by Brittany Van Beek with 16 and Jennifer Hefner 13.  Senior libero Meredy Dubbs dug 26 balls followed by Van Beek with 22 and Diedra Artz with 17.  Artz also handed out 56 set assists.

            MSU Moorhead's top hitter was Laura Tvrdik with 15 kills followed by Nicole Buysse with 12 and Kelci Guenther 11.  Libero Calla Oftedahl had 20 digs followed by Ashley Pyfferoen with 18 and Megan Norling 15.  Setter Leigh Splittstoesser finished with 50 set assists to go with 14 digs.

            Wayne State now awaits word on a possible NCAA Division II national tournament bid with the NCAA selection show scheduled for Sunday evening at 7:00 p.m.