Box Score
MOORHEAD, Minn. -- Senior Meredith Egeland had nine kills, five block assists and a solo block to lead the Minnesota State Moorhead University volleyball team to a 25-15, 25-17, 25-17 sweep of Minot State in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference action Saturday in Moorhead, Minn.

The Dragons improved to 15-12 overall and 7-11 in the NSIC with their third-straight win, while Minot State fell to 6-22 and 2-16 in the league.

Egeland hit .348 on 23 attack attempts for MSUM, which hit .269 as a team while holding Minot State to a .055 hitting percentage. Freshman Kaitlin VanWinkle had eight kills, hitting a match-best .429, while sophomore Annie Palmquist added eight kills on a .300 attack percentage. Senior Heidi Lensing added six kills. Senior Anna Olson had 19 set assists while freshman Casie Baer had 18. Senior Katy Ness had 18 digs while freshman Amber Krenske added 14.

"I thought our defense did a great job stopping their outside attack," MSUM head coach Tammy Blake said. "Our setters once again did a great job on distributing the ball amongst our hitters to balance out our offense."

The Dragons got rolling midway through the first set. Leading 16-13, they scored eight straight points -- sparked by a big serving run by Baer -- to stretch the lead to 24-13.  Egeland had a kill,a solo block and a block assist during that run, while freshman Abby Wolpern had a kill and a block assist. Minot State was within 24-15 but an Egeland kill off of a Baer assist helped the Dragons wrap up a 25-15 win.

MSUM scored the first four points of the second set before Minot State battled back to within 10-9. The Dragons methodically pulled away from there as a 9-2 run helped them take a 19-12 lead. Sophomore Maggie Gruber, Egeland and VanWinkle each had kills for MSUM, while Wolpern had a block. From there, the Dragons were never threatened in a 25-17 win.

The Dragons found themselves behind for the first time in the match to open the third set as Minot State led 5-3. That didn't last long as the Dragons went on a 9-2 run again -- keyed by two Palmquist kills and a kill and block assist from Egeland -- to make it 12-7. The Beavers were within 14-10 before the Dragons scored four straight points -- which were started by a Gruber kill -- to make it 18-10. Minot State never got closer than four the rest of the way as the Dragons prevailed 25-17.

Gruber finished with five kills and three block assists, while Wolpern had four kills, a solo block and two assists.

MSUM will wrap up its 2012 season with two home matches next weekend, starting with a contest on Nov. 9 against Minnesota-Crookston.

Note: Olson was honored prior to the match for recording her 2,000th career set assist, a feat she reached against Augustana in October.  She is pictured below in a pregame ceremony with Coach Blake.