The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle Volleyball Team got off to a great start in pursuit of their fourth straight victory, but they couldn’t keep the momentum, and they ended up being defeated by the Dragons of Minnesota State-Moorhead in four sets (15-25, 25-17, 25-20, 25-23) at Lysaker Gymnasium of the UMC Campus.
UMC falls to 7-14, while MSU-M improves to 9-12. Both teams are now 4-9 in conference play.
FIRST SET
Starting the first set was UMC scoring first, but an Abby Thompson kill capped off a 4-0 run for the Dragons, putting them up 4-1. UMC responded quickly, and at 6-6, Madison Carsten kicked off a 3-0 run, allowing the team to take a 9-6 lead. After a timeout was called by the Dragons, the Golden Eagles then continued to push, and aces by Carsten and Maya Jones, as well as seven Carizma Muth kills brought UMC all they way up to a 19-9 lead. Throughout the match, the Golden Eagles did a great job of defending MSU-M’s big hitters in Thompson and Halle Erickson, and doing that well allowed them to maintain that 10-point lead throughout the rest of the set, taking the first set 25-15.
SECOND SET
The second set played out very similar to the first set in the beginning, as UMC got back to a 9-5 advantage to start, with that run capped off by another ace by Jones, the same player who tied the school record for aces in a match on Wednesday with 7. However, right after that, the Dragons found their gear, and two consecutive Raiah Mandell kills helped the Dragons finish a 5-0 run, taking a 10-9 lead. UMC hung around for a bit, tying the match a couple of times, but after another Jones kill brought the deficit back to 1, at 15-14, the Dragons scored three in a row to take an 18-14 lead, and that propelled the Dragons to end the set on a 10-3 run to take the second set 25-17, evening the match at a set apiece.
THIRD SET
At the beginning of set 3, things began to change and benefit the Dragons. They were the team to get out to the early lead after a 5-0 run made it 6-4, and after UMC was able to tie the set at 8, MSU-M went on a 7-2 run with the help of an Annalie Wilson ace and a Brielle Riess kill. The rest of the points were on errors by UMC, which continued to mount up as the match went on. After the Dragons took a 15-10 lead, they continued to push the envelope, capitalizing on more Golden Eagle errors to take a 21-13 lead. Although UMC went on a 6-2 run out of that timeout to begin to close the gap, it just wasn’t enough, and the Dragons were able to put away the set by a score of 25-20; closer than what they had envisioned, but it still granted them a 2-1 set advantage.
FOURTH SET
As set 4 started off, UMC looked like they found their form from earlier in the match, jumping to a 4-1 start. After the Dragons tied the match up at 4, teams began exchanging points, and no one had a lead greater than 2 for the next dozen points scored. A Carizma Muth kill gave UMC that three-point lead to break that streak at 14-11, and they maintained that 3 point lead up to 16-13. However, the Dragons slowly started to itch back into the match, tying it up at 19 with another Riess kill, and then after more mistakes by the Golden Eagles, MSU-M got up to a 24-20 lead. UMC scored three in a row to cut the lead down to 24-23, but a Muth block barely landed out of bounds, and the Dragons hung on 25-23, winning the match 3 sets to 1.
UMC head coach Nick Meseck lamented how errors were the difference in this game. “We just continued to shoot ourselves in the foot throughout the game.” said Meseck. When asked about what he would take into next practice before being faced with a very tough schedule to end the year, Meseck laughed before he answered. “Hand contact” he chuckled, then said, “we’re so young, so teaching things on the fly to these 18 and 19-year-olds is hard, but I think we’re doing a great job.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| MSU-Moorhead | 15 | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| UM-Crookston | 25 | 17 | 20 | 23 |
For UMC
Kills – Maya Jones, Carizma Muth 15
Blocks – Maya Jones 3
Digs – Kailee Waasdorp 28
Assists- Baily Teveldal 35
Aces –Baily Teveldal, Maya Jones 2
For MSUM
Kills – Emily Ramsay 18
Blocks – Halle Erickson, Raiah Mandell 2
Digs – Annalise Wilson, Brielle Riess 16
Assists- Amanda Lisi, Annalise WIlson 22
Aces –Maci Martini 2
