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What's Ahead...

The Minnesota State University Moorhead volleyball team returns home this week to take on Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference opponents in Augustana and Wayne State College. 

The No. 20-ranked Augustana Vikings travel to Alex Nemzek Fieldhouse on Friday. Augustana is 16-6 on the season and 9-5 in conference play. As a team, the Vikings are averaging 14.2 kills per set with an attack percentage of .242. They have 13.5 assists per set and 113 total aces on the year. Defensively, the Vikings average 17.3 digs per set and 1.9 blocks per set. 

Saturday afternoon, the No. 6-ranked Wayne State College comes to town to face the Dragons at 4 p.m. The Warriors have 1107 total kills on the season averaging 14.2 kills per set (.249). They have 13.0 assists per set and 1.7 aces per set. On the defensive side of the ball, they have an outstanding 19.2 digs per set and at the net they have 116 total blocks with 1.5 blocks per set.

A Look Back at Last Week...

In conference play last week, the Dragons faced three tough teams, two of them ranked in the top 10 teams in the country. 

In the first match of the week, the Dragons traveled to No. 2-ranked Northern State where they fell in five matches, 25-19, 25-18, 18-25, 29-31, and 15-12. The then undefeated Wolves had only lost seven sets this season, with four of the losses handed to them by the Dragons.

In the match, the Dragons were led by sophomore outside hitter Carly Masloski who had a career-high 24 kills. Sophomore outside hitter Claire Grimm also had a career night with 16 kills along with four blocks and two digs while senior middle blocker Abby Wolpern had nine kills, 18 digs, and three blocks. Senior setter Casie Baer dished out 58 assists and led the team with 25 digs and two service aces on the evening. Senior libero Amber Krenske had 24 digs. 

After falling in the first two sets, the Dragons came out firing and took a 9-5 lead on a kill from Masloski. MSUM took their largest lead of the set at 17-10 on a huge block by VanWinkle and Grimm. The Wolves would battle back, but would not come within two points the rest of the set. MSUM took the set 25-18 on a kill from Wolpern.

Set four was one for the ages at it took 31 points for the Dragons to put it away. NSU took a commanding lead at 11-5 on a kill from Mandy Kurosky, before the Dragons would begin their comeback and tie the game at 24 on another kill by Masloski. From that point, there were five ties and MSUM would take their first lead of the set at point 30 on a monster kill from VanWinkle. Baer would put the set away with a kill, ending the set at 31-29, and bringing the game to 2-2.

The decisive fifth set was neck-and-neck before the Wolves would take a 9-6 lead on a kill from Kelsey Chambers. The Dragons would fight back, but would not get within three the rest of the set, and the Wolves would take the set 15-12.

Next up were the No. 5-ranked Mustangs of Southwest Minnesota State. The Dragons fought hard, but fell in five sets, 26-28, 21-25, 25-18, 25-13, and 15-11. 

MSUM was led by middle blocker Carly Masloski's 16 kills while senior middle blocker Kaitlin VanWinkle and senior right side hitter Abby Wolpern posted 12 kills apiece. Senior setter Casie Baer handed out 45 set assists and had 15 digs and redshirt freshman defensive specialist Monica Vega added 17 digs on the evening. Junior middle blocker Kelsey Hartkopf led the Dragons with six total blocks while VanWinkle added four more. 

 The tone was set for the evening right away in set one as there were 12 ties and nine lead changes. The Dragons gained their largest lead of the set at 13-9 on a kill from Hartkopf. The Mustangs clawed their way back and tied the game and took a 21-20 lead before a huge block from Masloski and Hartkopf stunted their run and tied the game at 21. MSUM took a 27-26 lead on a kill from sophomore outside hitter Claire Grimm before putting the set away on an attack error by the Mustangs. The Dragons would take set one 28-26. 

 Set two was tied at five before a huge kill by Masloski gave the Dragons the lead at 6-5. The set was tied again at 16 before Masloski came up with another kill on the night, bringing the score to 17-16. After a timeout from Moorhead, senior libero Amber Krenske gave the Dragons a service ace and a 24-21 lead. The Dragons took the second set, 25-21 on an error by SMSU. 

 After the Mustangs took sets three and four, the Dragons battled hard for the fifth set and the match win. MSUM got back-to-back kills by Grimm and Hartkopf to tie the set at three before the Mustangs went on a three point run and from which the Dragons wouldn't be able to come back from. The Dragons would bring the set within two at 12-10 on a kill from Wolpern, but the Mustangs would go on to score three of the next four points to take the set 15-11, and the game, 3-2. 

The third match of the week was a battle against Sioux Falls where the Dragons would come up just short in four matches, 25-17, 21-25, 25-19, 25-20. 

Senior middle blocker Kaitlin VanWinkle led the way with 15 kills and seven block assists, while sophomore hitter Carly Masloski had 11 kills. Senior right-side hitter Abby Wolpern had nine kills, while senior setter Casie Baer had 40 set assists and 18 digs. Redshirt freshman defensive specialist Monica Vega had 11 digs.

MSUM hit .139 for the match while the Cougars hit .227.

After losing the first set 25-17, the Dragons came back strong in the second set. Trailing 16-14, MSUM scored four points in a row — which included kills from sophomore outside hitter Claire Grimm, VanWinkle and Wolpern — to take an 18-16 lead. The Cougars were as close as 20-19 but a kill by Masloski, followed by a Baer service ace, pushed the lead to 22-19 and from there, MSUM cruised to a 25-21 win.

In the third set, MSUM was within 13-12 after Grimm and VanWinkle teamed up for a block, but the Cougars scored three points in a row to push the lead to 16-12. MSUM never got closer than there the rest of the set before falling 25-19.

A Masloski kill put MSUM up 10-9 in the fourth set, but the Cougars answered with four straight points to take 13-10 lead. MSUM trailed by as many as eight points in the set before going on a 5-0 run — sparked by a block from Wolpern and VanWinkle and a kill from Grimm — to cut the lead to 21-18. The Dragons got no closer, however, as they fell 25-20.

On Saturday, the Dragons ran into the No. 1 ranked team in the nation in Concordia-St. Paul and fell in three sets, 25-19, 25-13, 25-19. Senior libero Amber Krenske had 17 digs to pace the Dragons, while senior setter Casie Baer had 25 assists. Senior hitter Abby Wolpern led with nine kills while sophomore hitter Carly Masloski had six and senior Kaitlin VanWinkle five. Wolpern led with three block assists.

MSUM hit just .099 for the match compared to .385 for the Golden Bears.

Coach Thomas Wins Award

Coach Thomas Selected for the American Volleyball Coaches Association Minority Award this week. The award — in its first year of being issued — is given to eight minority coaches, with at least six being women, who are first-time AVCA Convention attendees and show promise as volleyball coaches. Minority coaches – female and male – from all AVCA constituencies – NCAA, NAIA, Two-Year Colleges, High School, and Club – are eligible for the award, according to the AVCA website. 
The award consists of full AVCA convention registration and housing for selected recipients.  

Baer Comes Up Big 

Senior setter Casie Baer had a huge weekend leading the team in assists in all three games and in digs in two of the three matches. With her successful play last weekend, Baer moved up from ninth to sixth on the all-time leaderboard in assists. Baer now has 2,231 total assists on her career.