#2 Minnesota Duluth 3 #11 Wayne State 2

            #11 Wayne State battled with #2 Minnesota Duluth Friday evening before falling in five sets to the host Bulldogs at Romano Gymnasium in Duluth, Minnesota as the Wildcats fell 25-22, 23-25, 19-25, 25-21 and 13-15.  UMD remains unbeaten in the NSIC at 17-0 and moves to 24-1 overall while WSC is now 21-5 and 13-4 in league play.
            The Wildcats built early leads of 14-9 and 16-10 in the first set, only to watch the host Bulldogs rally with a string of six straight points later in the set to take a 20-19 lead.  But WSC responded and the 'Cats used a pair of Katie Hughes kills and a service ace from Leisa McClintock to regain the lead.  With WSC leading 23-22, the Wildcats got a kill from Elizabeth Gebhardt and a block from Alex Opperman on set point for a 25-22 win.
            The second set saw 13 ties and eight lead changes between the two teams, but WSC was plagued by nine attack errors in the set as a result of six UMD blocks as the Bulldogs evened the match with a 25-23 set win.
            Wayne State came out strong in the third set, accumulating leads of 9-4 and 14-11.  But Minnesota Duluth rallied and scored seven of the next eight points to take a 18-15 lead as the Bulldogs separated themselves from the Wildcats for a 25-19 set win to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
            The fourth set saw WSC start strong again, taking an 8-3 lead to force an early UMD timeout.  WSC still held a five point lead at 17-12, but UMD pulled within two at 21-19 to force a Wildcat timeout.  WSC then got points on kills from Hughes and Michaela Mestl followed by a UMD attack error and another Mestl kill on set point to force a fifth set with WSC winning the fourth set 25-21.
            The fifth set was a battle as WSC built a 7-4 lead early, but the host Bulldogs scored the next eight points for a 12-7 advantage.  Trailing 13-10, WSC used a Bulldog service error and attack error along with a block by Hughes and Opperman to even the score at 13 apiece.  But Minnesota Duluth got kills from Katie Ledwell and Sydnie Mauch to finish off the Wildcats 15-13 in the fifth set.
            Wayne State hit .150 in the match while UMD registered a .286 attack percentage.  Minnesota Duluth held a 74-53 advantage in kills, but WSC made up for that in the serving area with nine service aces while UMD had just one with 13 service errors.  UMD had a 13-8 edge in blocks over the 'Cats and a 96-81 advantage in digs over WSC.
            Sophomore Michaela Mestl had a season-high 14 kills to go with 21 digs, her third double-double in four matches, to lead Wayne State.  Sophomore middle hitter Alyssa Frauendorfer added 13 kills, four blocks and three service aces while junior outside hitter Katie Hughes finished with 12 kills and 28 digs for her 15^th double-double of the year.
            Junior libero Courtney VanGroningen recorded 18 digs with two service aces while junior setter Leisa McClintock was credited with 41 set assists.
            Wayne State will be in action again Saturday afternoon playing at St. Cloud State in a 4 p.m. contest.