#11 St. Cloud State 3 #15 Wayne State 2
#15 Wayne State College and #11 St. Cloud State faced each other for the third time this season Friday evening in the NSIC Volleyball Tournament Semi-Finals at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and the Huskies needed five sets to outlast the Wildcats by scores of 23-25, 25-18, 21-25, 25-19, 15-9. SCSU is now 26-4 on the season while WSC sports a 22-8 mark.
The Wildcats trailed the entire first set until a late rally to post a 25-23 first set win. WSC trailed 20-16 but battled back to tie the score at 21-21 on a Husky attack error. With SCSU leading 23-22, WSC got a kill from Jaz DeHaan followed by back-to-back kills from
Taya Beller to cap the first set comeback with a 25-23 set win.
St. Cloud State came back in the second set and led start to finish for a 25-18 set win to even the match at 1-1. The Huskies hit a sizzling .457 in the set with 17 kills and just one error on the Wildcats while DeHaan had six kills to pace WSC.
The third set was a battle featuring 12 ties and eight lead changes, but WSC charged late and broke an 18-18 tie to finish with a 25-21 set win.
WSC trailed 20-19, but got a kill from Cada followed by two straight kills from Beller to take a 22-20 lead and WSC went on to the 25-21 set victory. Beller had six kills for the 'Cats followed by Cada with four.
St. Cloud State came back in the fourth set and notched a 25-19 win the even the match. The Huskies turned an 8-8 tie into a 16-9 lead midway through the set to take control.
The momentum continued for St. Cloud State in the fifth set, taking an early 8-2 advantage, and never trailed in rallying for a 15-9 fifth set win and 3-2 match victory.
St. Cloud State finished the match with a .347 hitting percentage while WSC hit .187. The Huskies held a 76-62 advantage in kills and 81-59 in digs. WSC had four service aces to just one for the Huskies while SCSU had eight service errors to five on the Wildcats.
Sophomore outside hitter
Kelsie Cada had a team-high 19 kills for Wayne State. Jaz DeHaan finished with 15,
Taya Beller 14 and
Maggie Brahmer 12 for the Wildcats.
Lauren Jacobsen paced the 'Cats in digs with 19 followed by
Elly Larson with 13. Sophomore setter
Rachel Walker handed out 52 set assists.
Wayne State was ranked eighth in the final NCAA Division II Central Region Rankings and will have to wait for the NCAA selection show Monday evening at 6:30 p.m. to see if the Wildcats receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II National Tournament.