WINONA, Minn. – No. 16 Winona State University put an exclamation point on the regular season Saturday afternoon inside McCown Gymnasium with a straight-set victory over No. 5 Minnesota Duluth. The win marks the Warriors' first regular season triumph over the Bulldogs since 1990 and just their second overall victory in that span.
WSU swept UMD by scores of 25-10, 25-18, 25-23 as the Warriors victoriously celebrated Senior Day for Alexis Bass after the match.
Winona State closes the regular season with a record of 21-7 (13-7 NSIC) and secures no worse than the number-seven seed in the upcoming NSIC Tournament. Duluth falls to 23-5 (16-4 NSIC) as the Bulldogs entered the day with a chance of securing at least a share of the regular season conference championship.
Sophomore Madison Rizner recorded a career-best nine blocks as the Warriors collectively totaled a season-high 15 blocks.
Bre Maloney tallied 33 assists while setting the offense to a .360 clip – Winona State's highest this season against a nationally-ranked opponent and the highest any team has hit against UMD this year.
The Warriors hit .400 or better in both of the first two games, leading wire-to-wire in a dominate set one victory that saw the home team rack up eight blocks. Set two was more of the same as Winona State only trailed on two occasions of the game's first three points. The Warriors used a seven-point run to break open a 15-5 lead and never looked back. Rizner floored four of her six kills in the set.
Winona State's First Team All-Conference recipient, Megan Flom, took over in the final game, drilling five of her team-best 12 kills. The Bulldogs seemingly got better as the match went along, but it wasn't enough to halt the Warriors' momentum in the sweep. The sides traded the lead three times and were tied atop the score board on nine occasions.
The Bulldogs pulled ahead in set three, 22-20, looking to extend the match, but were denied on a kill by Rizner and a subsequent attacking error to knot the score. Duluth went back in front, 23-22, before Winona State rallied for the final three points. Another Rizner kill tied the game again and a pair of Bulldog attacking errors sealed Duluth's fate.
Cori Meyers added 10 kills for the Warriors and Paige Christopher floored eight more. Becca Pagel patrolled the back row with 11 digs, and Kate Masberg dropped two of Winona State's four aces.
The complete NSIC Tournament field will be announced on Saturday evening. The Warriors, who missed the postseason in 2018, will have six days to prepare for their opening round opponent at the Sanford Pentagon on Friday, November 22.
