WINONA, Minn. – The No. 25 Winona State volleyball team upped its sweep streak to five consecutive matches, downing Bemidji State in straight sets (25-13, 25-18, 25-19) Saturday afternoon in McCown Gymnasium.
The Warriors continued its string of high-percentage hitting performances, finishing at .361 as a team for the match while holding the Beavers to .118.
Freshman Maria Wrage enters the WSU record book after hitting .714 and racking up 10 kills on 14 attempts. The percentage ranks tied for the seventh-most efficient hitting performance in single-match history with at least 10 attempts.
Taylor Goar tallied match-highs in both kills (15) and digs (18) and hit a strong .375 for her 10th double-double of the season.
Setter McKenna Larsen also had an efficient afternoon, succeeding on seven of her eight kill attempts to hit .875 with a match-high 36 assists and eight digs.
Three straight kills – one apiece from Jordan Runge, Goar and Lauren Kudronowicz – helped the Warriors storm out to a 9-3 lead in the opener. Later a 4-0 run turned into an 11-3 spurt as Goar finished off the first set with a 25-13 win.
The Warriors racked up 20 kills in the second set while hitting .432. The Beavers hung around, trailing by just one at 16-15, but went on a 9-3 run capped off with a Larsen kill to end the set gave WSU the 25-18 win.
After managing just 12 kills in the first two sets combined, BSU found a bit of a groove with 11 kills in the third set while its .226 hitting percentage was its best of the match, but WSU was still too much, hitting .382 with 17 kills. Like the second set, Bemidji State hung around early, knotting the match at 11-11, but was never able to take a lead, as a 5-0 put the Warriors ahead 16-11 and two points was as close as the Beavers would get as freshman Sophie Wilker finished off the match with a kill for the 25-19 win.
Winona State (14-7, 8-6 NSIC) spends the next two weekends on the road, beginning next weekend with a pair of matches at No. 8 Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State.
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