WINONA, Minn. – No. 19 Winona State University suffered its first home loss of the season and had its four-match winning streak snapped in the process as Wayne State College defeated the Warriors in four sets on Friday night in McCown Gymnasium.
Fresh off cracking the AVCA Top 25 for the first time in over a year earlier this week, the Warriors did not look like themselves in an uncharacteristically sloppy match where the home team committed a season-high 30 hitting errors.
The Wildcats defeated the Warriors by set scores of 25-18, 19-25, 25-16, 25-16.
Winona State falls to 12-3 (4-3 NSIC) with the setback while Wayne State (14-2, 5-2 NSIC) jumps ahead of the Warriors in the crowed conference standings.
Wayne State set the tone for how the night would go in the opening game by hitting .412 and limiting WSU to a .184 clip. The Wildcats recorded four of their 11 blocks in the match in set one while the Warriors committed seven attacking errors.
Winona State temporarily got back on track in set two, hitting .343 and cut down its attacking errors to five. The Warriors led wire-to-wire in the game and were aided by six-point run to grab an early 9-3 lead before closing the win on a four-point run capped by a Casey Volkmann service ace.
Set three saw the Warriors commit 10 hitting errors and eight more followed in the fourth and final set.
The reigning NCAA Division II Player of the Week, Megan Flom, did all she could to will her teammates by flooring a season-high 18 kills, but it wasn't enough to outweigh the team's collective hitting woes. Madison Larson (11) and Madison Rizner (10) were the other offensive leaders.
Rizner and Paige Christopher recorded three block assists apiece.
WSU was also plagued by six service errors while dropping three aces on the Wildcats. Wayne State also had six service errors, but was aided by five aces.
Bre Maloney set the offense with 44 assists and Becca Pagel tallied 16 digs.
The Warriors conclude their current homestand and wrap up Homecoming with a 2 p.m. match on Saturday against Augustana University.
