Box Score
ST. CLOUD -- Senior setter Anna Olson had 43 set assists to help the No. 22-ranked Minnesota State University Moorhead volleyball team defeat St. Cloud State, 25-19, 25-16, 20-25, 27-25, in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference opener for both teams Friday night in St. Cloud. MSUM won its seventh straight match and improved to 9-1 overall and 1-0 in the NSIC, while St. Cloud State fell to 4-5 overall and 0-1 in the league.

Olson added 10 digs and three block assists for the Dragons. Senior Heidi Lensing and sophomore Annie Palmquist had 14 kills each, while sophomore Maggie Gruber had 10 and freshman Kaitlin VanWinkle had nine. Freshman Abby Wolpern had eight kills for MSUM. Senior Katy Ness, the reigning two-time NSIC Defensive Player of the Week, had 20 digs, while freshman Casie Baer radded 11.

"It was nice to start our conference play off with a win," MSUM head coach Tammy Blake said.

The Dragons trailed 4-1 in the first set but scored seven points in a row to take an 8-4 lead.  Lensing sparked that run with two kills and a block assist, while Baer served six straight points. St. Cloud State cut the gap to 9-6, but the Dragons answered with another run -- a 6-0 spurt keyed by two kills from Palmquist, kills from Gruber and Lensing and a service ace from Ness.
The Huskies got the gap to 19-17, but MSUM scored four straight points -- which included a service ace by Baer --  to push the lead to 23-17 on its way to a 25-19 win.

The Dragons faced a 12-8 deficit in the second set but surged into a 21-15 lead with a 13-3 run.  Gruber had three kills during that run while Lensing and Wolpern had two each.  MSUM was never threatened the rest of the way in securing a 25-16 win and 2-0 lead in the match.

MSUM fell behind early in the third set was fell, 25-20.

In the fourth set, St. Cloud State jumped out to a 9-4 lead and the Dragons trailed 15-10 at one point. however, MSUM battled back to tie the set at 20-20. The fourth set had 10 ties and three lead changes alone.

The Dragons were down 24-23 in the fourth, but a kill from Lensing tied the set at 24-24. Gruber and Olson teamed up for a block to give the Dragons a 25-24 lead. The set was tied at 25-25 before Gruber and Palmquist finished it off with back-to-back kills to give the Dragons a 27-25 win and 3-1 victory in the match.

Freshman Amber Krenske added 10 digs for MSUM, while Gruber led an aggressive blocking night with five assists.

MSUM plays at No. 4-ranked Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday. The match begins at 4 p.m. in Duluth, Minn. UMD swept Northern State on Friday night.