#21 Northern State rallied from a 2-1 set deficit to outlast #10 Wayne State 25-18, 18-25, 19-25, 25-20, 15-11 Saturday afternoon in Northern Sun Conference volleyball played at Rice Auditorium in Wayne. The Wildcats are now 20-6 and 12-4 in the NSIC while the visiting Wolves improved to 19-5 and 11-5 in league games.
Northern State came out on fire in the opening set, hitting .455 to down the Wildcats 25-18.
Wayne State gained momentum in the second and third sets and took a 2-1 lead in the match.
The second set saw the Wildcats force nine NSU errors that included five blocks for a 25-18 set win.
Maggie Brahmer had four kills in the set while
Taya Beller had three kills and four blocks.
Wayne State recorded 17 kills and a .341 hitting percentage in the third set to roll past the Wolves 25-19.
Channatee Robles accounted for five kills in the set with Brahmer adding four kills and three blocks.
Despite forcing nine more attack errors on Northern State in the fourth set that included four blocks, the Wildcats were limited to a .045 hitting percentage in dropping the fourth set to the Wolves 25-20.
The fifth set saw the Wildcats take an early lead at 3-0, but Northern State battled back took the lead for good at 7-6 in finishing with a 15-11 fifth set win over WSC.
Northern State hit .220 in the match to .184 for the Wildcats. WSC had 56 kills and held a 17-9 advantage in blocks over NSU.
Maggie Brahmer led Wayne State with 17 kills to go with nine blocks. Robles finished with 16 kills and 16 digs.
Senior
Taya Beller ended with 10 kills and became the seventh player with 1,500 kills at Wayne State (1,502) while also recording eight blocks.
Senior libero
Brooke Peltz had 26 digs and freshman setter
Molly Romano was credited with 49 assists and six blocks in the contest.
The Wildcats close out the NSIC regular season next weekend on the road visiting the University of Mary Friday at 6 p.m. and Minot State Saturday at 11 a.m.
