MOORHEAD, Minn. – The Minnesota State University Moorhead volleyball team won a Northern Sun Intercollegiate home match over Upper Iowa (9-13, 3-10 NSIC) on Friday night. The Dragons won 25-23, 25-27, 25-14, and 25-22.
MSUM is now 9-12 overall and 4-9 in conference play.
Junior captain hitter Carly Masloski had a career night as she led the Dragons offense with a career-high 27 kills, hitting an impressive .385 at the net. Masloski also had seven digs, three blocks and one service ace. Junior middle blocker Taylor Liesemeyer added 12 kills for the Dragon offense, as well as three digs and one block.
Redshirt-freshman setter Makayla Wenzel finished the match with 52 set assists and 20 digs. Sophomore libero Monica Vega had a team-high 31 digs. Redshirt-freshman hitter Sarah Hagler finished with a team-high five blocks, as well as seven kills.
Hitting .261 as a team in the first set allowed MSUM to jump out to a 1-0 set lead. Knotted up at 18-18 late in the first set, Masloski finished a rally with a kill sparking a 3-0 run for MSUM before an Upper Iowa timeout. Out of the timeout the Peacocks rallied off two points cutting the lead to two, but kills by Hagler and redshirt-freshman Ellie Rutten put the set away 25-23.
In a second set loss, MSUM only hit .083 as a team, as the UIU defense came alive. Trading points back and forth for the first half of the set, three kills by Masloski gave the Dragons a 19-16 lead. The Peacocks battled back to tie the game at 21-21, before eventually winning the set in extra points 27-25.
Not rattled by the second set loss, MSUM came out guns blazing taking a commanding 12-4 lead. Masloski, Hagler and senior hitter Tyann Caspers each had kills in that run. A consistent offense helped power MSUM to a third set final score of 25-14. The Dragons hit .343 as a team in the third set, their best single set hitting percentage of the night.
In the fourth and final set of the evening, Masloski fired off eight kills, leading MSUM to a 25-22 win. Once again the Dragons had a hot start building a 6-2 lead, and held that four-point advantage for the majority of the match. It wasn't until late in the set, when UIU used a 3-0 run to pull within 24-22, but one of Masloski's many kills put the set and match away for the Dragons.
The Dragons return to action on Saturday, Oct. 22 for a NSIC matchup with No. 6 Winona State. The match is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.
