MOORHEAD, Minn. — The Minnesota State University Moorhead volleyball team opened the Microtel and Travelodge Classic with a pair of wins on Friday. The Dragons rallied to beat Minot State, 25-22, 16-25, 19-25, 25-20, 15-9 early in the day and then recorded a win over the South Dakota School of Mines, 22-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-17.
MSUM and Montana State-Billings were the only teams to go 2-0 on the opening day of the classic.
To open the day, MSUM rallied from a 2-1 deficit to beat Minot State, 25-22, 16-25, 19-25, 25-20, 15-9 in a nonconference matchup.
In the win over Minot State, junior middle blocker
Kaylyn Jenkins led the Dragons with 12 kills and four blocks, while freshman right-side hitter
Amber Klug and freshman outside hitter
Madison Wassink each chipped in 10 kills. Sophomore setter
Lauren Kiewiet provided 32 assists and freshman setter
Katelyn Selensky had 18 assists. Senior libero
Monica Vega led the team with 19 digs.
MSUM won the first set 25-22 but Minot took the next two to take a 2-1 lead in the match. The teams battled in the first set before the Dragons went on a five-point run to bring the score to 10-6. The Dragons would maintain the lead for the rest of the opening set with sophomore middle blocker
Kylie Kanwischer providing the final kill for a 25-22 win.
Minot State took sets two and three before MSUM came back in set four. The Dragons prevailed 25-20 after building a commanding 24-15 lead.
The fifth set saw MSUM score the first four points —
Kaylyn Jenkins and
Amber Klug each had kills. The lead grew to 10-2 after a Minot error. The Beavers closed the gap to 14-9 before MSUM prevailed.
In the win over South Dakota Mines, Jenkins led MSUM with 16 kills while Wassink added 11. Kiewiet had 29 set assists and 15 digs. Vega had 20 digs while junior defensive specialist
Taylor Thorson had 13. Jenkins had one solo block and two assists.
MSUM played strong after the first-set loss to pick up its second win of the day.
MSUM will play two more matches on Saturday to close out the weekend. The Dragons will face Western State at 11:30 a.m. before closing the day with a match against the University of Mary at 5 p.m.
