ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The Minnesota State University Moorhead volleyball team ended the regular season with a victory over St. Cloud State Saturday afternoon in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play, 26-24, 25-21, 22-25, and 25-21.

The Dragons end the regular season at 16-12 overall and 9-11 in the always tough NSIC, while the Huskies are 9-19 and 5-15 in the conference. Despite the win, MSUM barely missed out on an NSIC tournament berth. The Dragons finished one game behind eighth-place Minnesota State for the final spot.

Senior middle blocker Kaitlin VanWinkle led all hitters with 20 kills hitting an astounding .457 on the match, while sophomore outside hitter Carly Masloski added 18 kills, hitting .444. Senior middle blocker Abby Wolpern had 14 kills in the win while senior setter Casie Baer handed out 61 set assists. Senior libero Amber Krenske and Wolpern each had 15 digs and junior middle blocker Kelsey Hartkopf added seven blocks.

VanWinkle added three block assists in the match giving her 390 total block assists on her career, which puts her in first place on the all-time block assists leaderboard alongside with Mary Sussenguth. Sussenguth played at MSUM from 2006-09.

The Dragons trailed early in set one as the Huskies jumped out to an 8-3 lead before a kill from sophomore outside hitter Claire Grimm brought the score to 8-4. From there the Dragons would rally and take an 11-10 lead on a monster block from Hartkopf and Masloski. MSUM tied the set at game point on a kill from VanWinkle, and would take the set 26-24 on a block wall put up by VanWinkle and Grimm.

The second set rallied back and forth before the Dragons would take a 10-7 lead on an attack error by St. Cloud State. A kill from Hartkopf brought the score to 17-13 before the Huskies started a rally of their own, bringing the score to 21-20. From there, the Dragons would score four of the next five points to put the set away, 25-21, on a kill from Masloski.

MSUM would fall in set three but came back to take set four and the game. Back-to-back monster blocks from Wolpern and Hartkopf gave the Dragons a 13-10 lead and the momentum. Masloski gave the Dragons a 20-17 lead on a huge kills and VanWinkle brought the set to game point, 24-20, on one of her game-high kills. Another kill from VanWinkle would seal the victory for the Dragons, 25-21.

The Dragons have completed regular season play with an overall record of 16-12.