#5 Wayne State 3 #16 Minnesota Duluth 1

            Taya Beller, Kelsie Cada and Jaz DeHaan each recorded 14 kills to power #5 Wayne State College to a 28-26, 25-19, 19-25, 25-17 victory Friday evening at 16^th-ranked Minnesota Duluth in the Northern Sun Conference volleyball opener for both teams.  WSC is now 7-1 and 1-0 in the NSIC while UMD drops to 7-2 and 0-1 in the league.
            The Wildcats needed extra points and rallied from a 22-19 deficit in the opening set to outlast the Bulldogs 28-26.
            WSC faced deficits of 18-13 and 19-14 in the first set.  The 'Cats also faced two set points but rallied both times.  Trailing 26-25, Wayne State got a kill from Maggie Brahmer followed by consecutive ace serves from freshman libero Alaina Wolff to clinch the 28-26 rally in the first set.
            Beller had five kills on just eight attacks to lead WSC in the opening set followed by DeHaan and Brahmer with four kills apiece.
            The second set was less stressful on the Wildcats as WSC forced eight UMD attack errors while rolling to a 25-19 set win.  WSC built leads of 12-7 and 20-12 before closing with the 25-19 set win.
            Brahmer and DeHaan each accounted for three kills in the set while Beller and Rachel Walker each had service aces.
            Minnesota Duluth kept the match alive in the third set by recording 18 kills to put away the Wildcats 25-19. 
            After WSC held a 12-8 lead to open the set, UMD rallied and took a 16-14 lead to force a WSC timeout.  The Wildcats stormed back from a 19-16 deficit and tied the set at 19-19, but the host Bulldogs scored the final six points of the set for the 25-19 set win.
            The Wildcats wasted little time in the fourth set to regain momentum, taking a 5-1 lead early and never looked back in beating the Bulldogs 25-17 to capture a 3-1 match win. 
            The trio of Beller, Cada and DeHaan accounted for all 15 Wildcats kills in the fourth set with Cada notching six followed by Beller five and DeHaan four. 
            Wayne State finished the match with a .253 attack percentage compared to .189 for UMD.  The host Bulldogs had five more kills than the Wildcats 60-55 but WSC forced 26 attack errors compared to 13 on the Wildcats.  UMD had four more digs than WSC 84-80 and one more block 6-5.
            Beller hit .375 with her 14 kills to lead WSC followed by DeHaan's 14 kills and .324 attack percentage.  Cada also had 14 kills along with a team-high 17 digs.  Jessie Brandl added 16 digs with libero Alaina Wolff recording 12.  Beller and Elly Larson each had three blocks while Wolff and Beller had two service aces apiece. 
            Sophomore setter Rachel Walker handed out 48 set assists in the win.
            The Wildcats continue their NSIC road trip Saturday afternoon with a 2 p.m. match at #23 St. Cloud State.