Box Score DULUTH, Minn. – Minnesota State volleyball (11-3, 3-3 NSIC) defeated the Bulldogs of Minnesota Duluth (8-6, 1-5 NSIC) on their home court in a three-set sweep. This was the Mavericks' second-straight win at Romano Gymnasium in Duluth and the Bulldogs' fifth-straight loss. Freshman Avery Klein led the team with 13 kills for the third-straight game, setting a new career-best.
 
A big kill for senior middle blocker Kiya Durant tied the score at 3-3 early in the opening set and an attack error gave the Mavericks the lead, but the Bulldogs went on a 4-0 run to take the lead 7-4. Setter Jadyn Lester connected with Avery Rosenberg for a kill that made the score 9-7, in favor of UMD, but a pair of booming kills forced a Minnesota State timeout. A couple of nice swings on the ball from Emma Loveall and Klein out of the timeout put the Maverick deficit at three, keeping the score close.
 
A Lester ace forced a Minnesota Duluth timeout with the score at 14-12, her 19^th of the season to lead the team. A block assist from Durant and Toryn Richards was followed up by a powerful kill from the senior outside hitter to tie the set at 14-14. Scores back-and-forth kept the score tied until a Richards kill put the Mavericks up 22-20 and forced another timeout from the Bulldog bench. Two UMD players combine for a block out of the break, but Durant had two kills to put the Mavericks up 24-22. Brooke Bolwerk and Loveall, two veterans of the Maverick program, connected for a kill to end the set 25-23 to put MSU up 1-0. Klein led the Mavericks with four kills hitting .500 in the first set. Cianna Selbitschka and Payton Addink both had five kills for Minnesota Duluth in the opener.
 
The Bulldogs responded by jumping out to a 4-1 lead early, going up by four on a block assist from Kylie Broten and Addink. Klein recorded a kill to end the run for the Bulldogs and a block assist from Emily Kern and Richards put the score at 5-4 and a Richards kill tied it. The two teams traded scores until a big kill for UMD's Madeline Guetzkow put the Bulldogs up 11-9.
 
Scores for both sides of the net kept the score close until Minnesota Duluth took an 18-15 lead that forced an MSU timeout. Loveall had a solo block that cut the Bulldog lead to two and the graduate student had a kill to cut it to one, forcing a UMD timeout. Guetzkow had a kill out of the timeout and an attack error put Minnesota Duluth up 21-18 which resulted in a timeout called from the Mavericks' bench. A pair of attack errors allowed Minnesota State to tie it up, 22-22. UMD called its second timeout of the set.
 
Out of the timeout, the Maverick defense played several big hits from the Mavericks well and scored on a well-placed kill to give the Mavericks a 23-22 lead out of the timeout. Another kill from Richards and another from Klein ended the set, giving the Mavericks a 2-0 advantage through the first two sets. The Mavericks held the Bulldogs to just a .164 hitting percentage in set two. Klein led MSU with nine kills through two sets.
 
Minnesota Duluth jumped out to an early 3-1 lead, but Kern and Klein combined for a block to end the run and the Mavericks tied it up on another block from Durant and Klein. A big kill from Durant, an attack error and an ace from Lester put the Mavericks up 7-4. Rosenberg had a huge block to put MSU up four. The Bulldogs scored three-straight but a great defensive effort from the Mavericks allowed the underdogs to continue extending their lead. A big block from Durant and Rosenberg put Minnesota State up 12-7, which forced a Bulldog timeout.
 
Both teams traded points until UMD cut the Maverick lead to three on a block from Samantha Paulsen and Broten. A point later, Minnesota State called a timeout; the score of the third set was 14-12. An attack error for Minnesota Duluth put the MSU squad back up by three, but another Broten-Paulson block made the score 16-14. The Bulldogs scored two points on attack errors to tie it up, but the Mavericks took the lead on an attack error from the home team. Klein's 11^th kill of the match put MSU up 19-17 and her 12^th maintained the two-point Maverick lead.
 
Minnesota Duluth tied the set score at 20-20 on a pair of blocks from Ellie Dammann, but a service error gave Minnesota State the serve back. Durant and Loveall combined for a block assist to put the Mavericks up 22-20. A pair of kills from Rosenberg made a match-point and another kill from the sophomore won the Mavericks the match in a 3-0 sweep.

Minnesota State ended the match with 37 kills, three aces and eight total blocks. The Mavericks hit .150 in the match.

Klein ended the match with a career-high 13 kills in three sets, hitting .407 against the Bulldogs. The freshman also had three block assists and four digs. Rosenberg tallied seven kills and two block assists in the match. Durant was the blocks leader in the match; she ended with five blocks. Lester had all three aces in the match and she led the Mavericks with 15 digs. Both Richards and senior libero Ellie Kline had nine digs against the Bulldogs.
 
"Last weekend was a wake up call; We realized in the moment the things we needed to change, and we outworked our opponents," said Minnesota State head coach Corey Phelps. "When we do that, this team shows up. We were so good defensively in this match. We train to be resilient in these moments, and we proved that by coming back four down in the second set."
 
Minnesota State looks to carry the momentum from this win into the upcoming weekend, as the team hosts Minot State (1-12, 0-6 NSIC) and UMary (2-12, 0-6 NSIC) on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 11 and 12.