Wayne State 3 Minnesota Duluth 2

            The #14 Wayne State College volleyball team won their third straight home game against a ranked opponent Friday night at Rice Auditorium in Wayne, America, defeating #16 Minnesota Duluth 3-2 (26-24,25-14,19-25,18-25,15-11). The win makes the Wildcats 25-6 overall and 13-3 in the NSIC and the loss drops the Bulldogs to 19-8 overall and 12-5 in the NSIC.

            The Wildcats trailed 11-7 in game one, but battled back. WSC took a 21-17 lead, but the Bulldogs made a comeback of their own to tie the game at 24-24. But Wayne State held strong and took game one 26-24. In game two, the Wildcats took control jumping out to a 6-0 lead. WSC hit a game high .317 to take the second game 25-14. UMD battled back in game three jumping out to a 9-3 lead and never looked back in taking game three 25-19. In game four the Bulldogs once again jumped out to a lead, taking an 8-1 advantage at one point. Minnesota Duluth held the Wildcats to a game  low .029 hitting percentage to take game four 25-18. The fifth and final game was back and forth until the Wildcats took the lead at 12-11 and never looked back winning 15-11.

            Wayne State was led by Jennifer Hefner who had 17 kills on the night. Sophomore Tali Fredrickson added 13 kills and both Mindy Moody and Shelby Schultz had 10 kills. Setter Diedra Artz was credited with 54 set assists in the contest. Defensively, Wayne State was led by Fredrickson with 18 digs and senior Tessa Wietfeld who had 17. Both Hefner and Artz added three blocks for WSC.

            UMD was led by Alyssa Nelson who had a game high 21 kills for the Bulldogs. April Hansen and Katie Kuffel each added 13 kills for Minnesota Duluth. Setter Eleena Iisakka also added a game high 62 set assists in the contest. Defensively, Rachel Jacobson had a game high 30 digs and Nelson had a game high nine blocks.

            Wayne State will be at home again Saturday afternoon hosting Bemidji State in a Northern Sun Conference contest starting at 5:00 p.m.