#17 Wayne State 3 #16 Minnesota State 2
17th-ranked Wayne State College rallied for a thrilling five-set win over 16th-ranked Minnesota State Thursday evening in the first round of the NCAA Central Regional Volleyball Tournament in St. Paul, Minnesota. Scores of the match were 25-23, 18-25, 21-25, 25-20 and 15-11. With the win, WSC improved to 5-0 this season in five set matches. The Wildcats, the fourth-seed in the regional, improve to 29-7 on the year while fifth-seeded Minnesota State ends at 25-7. It was the first win for an upper seed in the tournament after #2 Southwest Minnesota State lost to #7 Metro State 3-2 and #6 Minnesota Duluth swept #3 seed Nebraska-Kearney earlier in the day.
“What a great comeback win by our team,” said WSC head coach Scott Kneifl. “We came out a little tight and we didn't play our best at times but we still found a way to win and I'm very proud of this team. Our serve receive did a great job all night and we got the ball to our middles in the fourth and fifth games and that was big.”
In the first set, WSC rallied from a 21-17 deficit to win 25-23. Sophomore Tali Fredrickson fueled the rally, serving five straight points, including an ace, to give WSC their first lead of the set at 22-21. A Mindy Moody kill provided the game winning point in the first set as WSC won 25-21.
However, Minnesota State used solid hitting in the second and third sets to take a 2-1 lead in the match. After WSC opened the second set with a 4-1 lead, Minnesota State scored six straight points and rolled to a 25-18 win in the second set, recording 18 kills and a .326 hitting percentage against the 'Cats. The Mavericks continued their hot hitting in the third set, pounding out 17 kills and a .394 hitting percentage to win the third set 25-21 and a 2-1 lead in the match.
In the fourth set, Minnesota State jumped out to an 8-5 lead and was up 10-8 until WSC scored eight of the next nine points to grab a 16-11 advantage. MSU pulled within two points at 18-16, but the Wildcats then used another run winning six of the next seven points to take control of the fourth set with 24-17 lead that resulted in a 25-20 win to send the match to a fifth and deciding set.
The fifth set was tied at 6-6, but WSC scored three straight points on a MSU service error, a Diedra Artz kill and a block by Moody and Madison Pernicek to take a 9-6 lead. The Mavericks never got any closer and WSC got a kill from Pernicek on match point to win 15-11.
Minnesota State outhit the Wildcats in the match .221-.168 and had 71 kills to 55 for WSC. The Wildcats took advantage of 28 attack errors by Minnesota State and 10 service errors while WSC had 10 service aces to help offset the attacking advantage by the Mavericks. MSU had 14 blocks in the match to 11 for WSC.
Jennifer Hefner and Mindy Moody paced the Wildcats in hitting with 17 kills apiece. Moody hit an impressive .516 in the match while matching a career-high in kills in the win while Hefner added a team-high six blocks. Libero Leigh Connot had 22 digs followed by Tali Fredrickson with 16 and Tessa Wietfeld 13. Setter Diedra Artz handed out 47 set assists to go with 14 digs for WSC. Artz and Shelby Schultz had three service aces each in the win.
Wayne State advances to Friday night's Central Regional semi-final at 8:30 p.m. and will face top-seeded and defending NCAA Division II national champion Concordia-St. Paul, a 3-0 winner over Colorado School of Mines Thursday evening in the final first round match.
