Junior middle hitters Maggie Brahmer and Taya Beller combined for 26 kills, nine blocks and a .545 hitting percentage to lead #1 Wayne State in a 25-19, 25-17, 25-22 win over #10 Minnesota Duluth in Northern Sun Conference volleyball Saturday afternoon in Duluth, Minnesota.  WSC is now 14-1 and 5-0 in the NSIC while UMD drops to 10-4 and 3-3 in the league.
            The Wildcats never trailed in the match building sizeable leads early in the first two sets.
            WSC opened leads of 10-2 and 17-9 in the opening set.  The 'Cats still led 19-11 when the host Bulldogs rallied to close within three at 20-17 to force a Wildcat timeout.
            With the 'Cats leading 21-18, WSC got a UMD service error, block by Taya Beller and Channatee Robles, a Beller kill and another block by Beller and Rachel Walker to close the first set for a 25-19 win.
            Wayne State's defense set the pace in the opening set forcing 10 Minnesota Duluth attack errors that included five blocks.  Maggie Brahmer had five kills and three blocks to lead WSC in the opening set followed by Beller and Kelsie Cada with three kills apiece.
            The second set saw the Wildcats build another 10-2 advantage to set the tone.  The 'Cats still led 14-6 when the Bulldogs rallied to make the set interesting at 18-15 to force a Wayne State timeout.
            WSC then responded with kills by Beller and Cada followed by consecutive service aces from Beller to put the 'Cats back up 22-16 and Wayne State closed the set with an ace from Walker and kill by Brahmer to win 25-17.
            Wayne State posted 16 kills in the second set with a .424 hitting percentage.  Brahmer had another big set with six more kills and two blocks while Robles had four kills.
            The 'Cats jumped out to big leads again in the third set and again the host Bulldogs rallied but this time battled the 'Cats right until the end before WSC separated themselves late to complete the sweep.
            WSC held leads of 12-6 and 14-9 when the Bulldogs started their rally and knotted the set at 15-15.
            With the set still tied at 17-17, WSC got kills from Robles and Walker followed by a set error on UMD to give the 'Cats a 20-17 lead. 
            The Bulldogs closed within one at 23-22, but the 'Cats closed the set forcing two UMD attack errors for a 25-22 set win and a second straight road sweep over a top 10 team in the country and the NSIC.
            Wayne State hit .390 in the final set with 16 kills and no errors on 41 attempts.  Beller had six kills in the final set with Brahmer adding four.
            WSC ended the match with a .330 hitting percentage compared to .190 for UMD.  The 'Cats forced 20 attack errors on the Bulldogs with nine coming on blocks.  UMD had one more kill (44-43) and one more dig (52-51) but WSC had nine blocks to just one for UMD and held a 5-2 advantage in service aces.
            Brahmer had a match-high 15 kills and .560 hitting percentage to lead the 'Cats to go with seven blocks.  Beller followed with 11 kills, two blocks and two service aces and a .526 hitting percentage. 
            Setter Rachel Walker handed out 39 set assists and had two aces while senior libero Jordan McCormick recorded a match-high 17 digs.
            The Wildcats will be at home Tuesday evening hosting Winona State in an NSIC contest starting at 6 p.m. in Rice Auditorium.