MOORHEAD, Minn. – The Minnesota State University Moorhead volleyball team dropped a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference home match to No. 13 Northern State (15-5, 8-4 NSIC) on Tuesday night. The Wolves won 22-25, 25-13, 25-22, and 25-18.
MSUM is now 8-12 overall and 3-9 in Northern Sun play.
The Dragons hit .126 as a team, totaling 46 kills, 70 digs and 12 blocks. Northern State finished the match with a .218 hitting percentage, with 55 kills, 78 digs and 10 blocks.
Junior captain hitter Carly Masloski hit a team-high 12 kills, with six digs and four blocks. Freshman hitter Courtney Selbitschka added 11 kills for the Dragons, and redshirt-freshman Sarah Hagler had nine kills and a .241 hitting percentage.
Redshirt-freshman Makayla Wenzel accumulated 38 assists throughout the match. She also had nine digs. Sophomore libero Monica Vega had a team-high 20 digs, while Selbitschka added 13 digs of her own.
The Dragons started off on the right foot winning the first set 25-22. Masloski racked up five kills in the first set, while Selbitschka added three. The two teams went back-and-forth all the way to 19 kills apiece. A kill by Masloski and an error from Northern State gave MSUM the edge it needed to close the set out.
In the second set, the Wolves used an early lead to build momentum to carry them to a 25-13 second set win. Hagler contributed a team-high three kills in the second set to go along with one block. Masloski, Selbitschka and senior hitter Tyann Caspers each tallied two kills.
The third set proved to be a tighter contest, with Northern State just edging out MSUM 25-22. Down 21-14, the Dragons fired off four straight points pulling within three. Selbitschka had the only kill for MSUM in that stretch. The Wolves wouldn't give up the lead they built up, and matched the Dragons four points apiece to end the third set.
Tied at 11 apiece in the fourth set, NSU snagged five of the next six points building up the lead for the final time. Masloski had three kills in the fourth set, followed by Hagler and junior middle blocker Taylor Liesemeyer with two kills apiece. The Wolves went on to win the fourth set 25-18.
The Dragons return to action on Friday, Oct. 21 at home for a NSIC match with Upper Iowa. The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
