BISMARCK, N.D. --- The Minnesota State volleyball team earned its 10th sweep of the season outlasting U-Mary, 3-0 (28-26, 25-21, 25-21), Saturday afternoon.
With the sweep, Minnesota State finishes the season winning three of its last four matches to end with a 15-13 (9-11 NSIC) overall record. With the loss, U-Mary ends the season with an overall record of 8-21 (4-16 NSIC) on the season.
Both teams traded points in the opening moments to give the Mavericks the slight 7-6 edge. Minnesota State then erupted with a 5-0 run to double up U-Mary, 12-6. The Marauders would not go away and battled back to lock the stanza 15. The Mavericks responded to quickly push their lead back to five, 22-17, after a ball handling error. U-Mary once again answered to lock the frame at 24 following a kill by Lauren Randell. Minnesota State closed the set on a 4-2 run highlighted by a
Jackie Jones service ace. The Mavericks won the opening frame, 28-26.
The back and forth battle continued into the second set as both teams found themselves locked at nine after a U-Mary attack error. The Mavericks then created a four point, 17-13, advantage following
Autumn Risch setting up
Ashton Lee for the point. The Marauders chipped away to pull within one, 18-17, after a Maverick attack error. However, Minnesota State held off the late surge and went on to take the second frame, 25-21.
In the third and final set, the Mavericks jumped out to 7-4 lead with a Risch service ace to force an early Marauder timeout. Minnesota State then began to take control increasing its edge to seven, 19-12, following back-to-back kills from
Morgan Olson. The Marauders made one last surge to draw within one, 22-21, after a kill by Randell. The Mavericks closed the frame tallying the final three points including the game winning kill by
Anissa Janzig to seal the 25-21 win.
As a team, U-Mary held the slight edge in kills (45-44) and assists (44-41). Both teams managed 45 digs on the defensive end. Minnesota State posted a .350 hitting percentage and added six service aces.
Olson led the Mavericks with a team-high 14 kills to go along with a .478 attack percentage. Freshman
Micayla Porter handed out a team-best 29 assits while freshman
Mara Quam notched a team-high 11 digs on the defensive end. Freshman
Alivia Garbe also chipped in eight kills and nine digs to round out the top performers.
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