Box Score #8 Wayne State 3 #20 Northern State 1

            Senior Michaela Mestl recorded 20 kills and 16 digs for her 13^th double-double of the season on Senior Day to lead #8 Wayne State in a 25-23, 25-17, 23-25, 25-23 Northern Sun Conference volleyball win over #20 Northern State Saturday afternoon at Rice Auditorium in Wayne.  The Wildcats improve to 23-6 and 14-6 in the NSIC while Northern State drops to 16-12 and 9-11 in league play.
            Wayne State started slow, trailing 9-3 in the first set before the 'Cats caught fire.  Trailing 19-13, WSC rallied and took their first lead of the set at 24-23 on a block by Alyssa Frauendorfer and Erin Gross. The 'Cats then used a Mestl kill to finish the set with a 25-23 win as WSC hit .400 with 17 kills and just one attack error.
            The Wildcats led from start to finish in the second set, posting 16 kills with just one error and a .429 attack percentage for a 25-17 set win.
            WSC led most of the third set until a late Northern State rally gave the Wolves a 25-23 set win to force a fourth set.
            Wayne State led a majority of the fourth set, but held off a late Wolves surge for the 25-23 win as the Wildcats forced seven attack errors on the Wolves.  With the score tied at 23, WSC used a Tarrin Beller kill and a block from Beller and Frauendorfer to close out the match for the win.
            The Wildcats hit .293 in the match with 59 kills, 11 errors and 164 attacks while Northern State hit .212 with 59 kills, 24 errors and 165 attempts.  NSU held an 84-68 advantage in digs while WSC won the block battle at the net 12-3.
Northern State had one more service ace than WSC 8-7.
            Mestl led WSC with her 20 kills and 16 digs followed by Erin Gross with 15 kills and Frauendorfer 13.  Freshman libero Haley Kauth had 22 digs with sophomore setter Megan Gebhardt adding 13 digs with 47 set assists for her sixth double-double.  Frauendorfer paced WSC in blocks with seven while Gross and Alex Opperman had five apiece.
            Wayne State ends the regular season sixth place in the NSIC and awaits where they will travel for the first round of the NSIC Tournament Wednesday evening as pairings will be announced by the league office Saturday night.