ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Winona State volleyball team cruised to a 2-0 lead, then held on to post a big five-set victory over No. 15 Palm Beach Atlantic Friday night at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul.

The win marked the first victory over a top 15 team since Oct. 19, 2013, when it took down No. 15 Wayne State in Winona.

Sophomore setter McKenna Larsen turned in a fantastic performance, recording her first career triple double with a 44-assist, 12-kill, 11-dig effort while hitting .429 for the match.

The Warriors jumped out to a quick advantage using three straight attack errors by the Sailfish to start the match and never looked back in the opening frame. With an 8-5 lead, the Warriors rattled off eight straight points to take a commanding 18-6 lead. Palm Beach Atlantic rallied back to cut the WSU lead to 18-15, but couldn't complete the rally as Taylor Goar capped off game one with an ace to post a 25-18 win. The Warriors hit .318 in the opening set while holding the Sailfish to .103.

The Warriors were even more dominant in the second set, upping their hitting percentage to .344 while the Sailfish had just six kills with an equal amount of errors. The end result was a 25-11 victory helped by a 12-2 run to close out the set and take a 2-0 match lead.

Winona State appeared poised for a sweep when a Goar kill put the Warriors up 19-15 in the third, but the Sailfish finally strung together a run 10-2 run to steal a 25-21 win and force a fourth set. The Warriors committed 10 errors in the third set, while committing just 13 in the other four sets combined.

The Warriors again had a lead late in the fourth set when a Lauren Kudronowicz kill made it 17-15, but PBA made another late run to force a decisive fifth game with another 25-21 win.

But WSU would slam the door, never trailing in the final set. Back-to-back kills from Maria Fruechte followed by an ace from Goar put WSU out front 4-1, and an ace from Cairncross soon after made it 7-3. WSU's last run of the match was a quick four point spurt that stretched the lead to an insurmountable 11-4 before Goar put the exclamation point on the match with a kill and the 15-5 win.

Winona State, like earlier in the day, turned in another balanced effort offensively. Goar led the team with 14 kills, while Danielle Rampart had 13, McKenna Larsen added 12 and Fruechte contributed 10.

Rampart and Goar each recorded double-doubles, with Goar racking up 18 digs. Jamie Cairncross led the Warriors with 29 digs.

Freshman Maria Wrage was useful in a reserve role, picking up six kills on nine attempts with just one error.

Winona State (2-0) finishes up the Concordia-St. Paul Tournament Saturday at 2:30 when it takes on the host Golden Bears, a team that lost to Palm Beach Atlantic in five sets earlier today.