#18 Wayne State 3 Winona State 0
The 18th-ranked Wayne State College volleyball team overcame 16 hitting errors in the first two sets and went on to sweep Winona State 3-0 Friday evening in Winona, Minnesota. Scores of the match were 25-23, 26-24 and 25-18. Wayne State is now 20-4 overall and 8-2 in league play while Winona State drops to 6-16 overall and 4-7 in the NSIC.
WSC trailed 19-16 and 20-18 in the first game, but scored four straight points to take a 22-20 lead and gain momentum to win the first set 25-23. The Wildcats hit just .172 in the first set with seven hitting errors. The second set saw the Wildcats hold a 21-17 lead, but Winona State scored five straight and six of seven points to gain the lead at 23-22. Winona State had set point at 24-23, but WSC used a kill by Lea Hartigan, a block by Deidra Artz and Mindy Moody and another kill by Hartigan to overcome nine hitting errors in the second set as WSC hung on for a 26-24 win.
The third set was controlled by the Wildcats as WSC raced to an early 9-4 lead and won 25-18 hitting .265 with 18 kills and just five errors in the third set to complete the NSIC road sweep.
Wayne State outhit Winona State in the match .181 to .114 and had 50 kills to Winona State’s 35. WSC finished the match with 21 hitting errors to 18 for the Warriors.
Mindy Moody and Jennifer Hefner paced Wayne State in hitting with 12 kills apiece followed by Tali Fredrickson with nine. Moody had a team-high four blocks to lead WSC while libero Leigh Connot recorded 24 digs followed by Diedra Artz and Fredrickson with 18 digs each. Artz also handed out 38 set assists in the win for Wayne State.
The Wildcats will be on the road again Saturday afternoon visiting Upper Iowa in a Northern Sun Conference contest starting at 4:00 p.m.