DULUTH, Minn. – Senior Maria Fruechte floored a career-best 19 kills in the opening round of the NSIC tournament, but it wasn't enough to lift Winona State into the semifinals as the Bulldogs of Minnesota Duluth outlasted the Warriors, 3-2.
WSU rallied for a 2-0 deficit in the match, and led late in set five, but UMD withstood the challenge on its home court. The Bulldogs prevailed by set scores of 25-19, 25-17, 24-26, 19-25, 15-12.
Winona State's fate will now be determined by the NCAA DII Regional selection show slated to air Monday, November 20 at 6:30 p.m. The Warriors were ranked No. 7 in the latest regional rankings released prior to Wednesday night's match.
The quarterfinal loss snaps Winona's season-long seven match winning streak and stands as the Warriors' first loss on the road to a conference foe this season.
Winona led by three on three occasions in the decisive fifth set, pulling ahead 11-8 on a UMD service error. With their backs against the wall, the Bulldogs rattled off four straight points to claim a 12-11 lead, and denied Winona's comeback bid by closing the match on a 7-1 run.
Duluth narrowly edged Winona in digs on the night, 65-63, but found a way to come up with big saves time and time again when they needed it most, and seemingly prevailed in a majority of the long rallies in the match. While WSU committed six errors in set one, the Warriors hit .391 in the second set, but were denied at every turn when attempting to shift the momentum.
The Bulldogs produced an astounding 20 digs in the fifth set to limit WSU to just a .143 attacking percentage on 35 swings.
Danielle Rampart recorded her 14th double-double of the season with 15 kills and 15 digs. The senior drilled seven kills in the third set which sparked the Warriors' comeback bid.
Maria Wrage finished the night with 12 kills and led Winona with six blocks.
McKenna Larsen stuffed the stat sheet with 56 assists, nine digs and eight kills. Becca Pagel paced the Warriors with 16 digs.
Duluth entered the match leading the NCAA in team hitting percentage (.298). WSU successfully held the Bulldogs below a .300 clip for the second time in two tries, marking just the 10th such occurrence this season for UMD.
Winona State falls to 21-8 with the loss and Duluth advances to the NSIC semifinals with a record of 24-5.
