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Box Score - 1
Box Score - 2
Morris, Minn. – The University of Minnesota, Morris volleyball team played two of their best matches of the season tonight (Oct. 22), posting two of their finest wins. The Cougars' opened the night with an impressive 3-0 win over UMAC power Northwestern, and then closed it with a thrilling come-from-behind, 3-2 win over Coe.
With the season winding down the Cougars displayed some of the best volleyball in sweeping the defending UMAC champions. In a tightly contested match, the Cougars won by scores of 25-22, 25-22 and 25-23.
“This is definitely another step in the right direction for our program, Cougars head coach Chad Bragelmann said after the opening win.“ In order to be the best you have to beat the best and Northwestern has been consistently the team to beat in the UMAC. They helped us out tonight with some hitting errors but I thought our team did a great defensive job, both at the net getting blocks and touches, and in the back row where we did a good job of keeping balls alive.”
In the win over the Eagles, the Cougars avenged their earlier 3-0 loss, from down in St. Paul earlier this season. Minnesota, Morris scored four of the final five points to take the first set and three of the final four in their second set win. Things were different, though, in the high drama third set.
The Cougars had a three-point lead at 23-20 after a Steph Schmieising (Melrose, Minn.) kill, but the Eagles answered with back-to-back kills, and after a UMM attack error, trailed just one at 24-23. Clinging to a one point lead the Cougars went back to Schmieising for the winning kill.
Following that step, the Cougars took yet another in the marathon win over Coe. The Cougars dropped the opening set 25-23, but came back to dominate sets two and three by scores of 25-16 and 25-15. Minnesota, Morris hit an impressive .464 in the set-two win, while holding Coe to a mere -.097
The Kohawks evened the match in the fourth set with a 25-19 win before the Cougars closed it out with their 15-13 in the fifth and final set.
The Cougars began the final frame by spotting the Kohawks three points at the start and never led until the score was 14-13. Trailing 11-13 and on the brink of a loss, back-to-back kills form Megan Theis (Shakopee, Minn.) tied the match, and back-to-back aces from Natalie Thomas (Champlin, Minn.) gave the Cougars the win.
Jordan Olerud (Redwood Falls, Minn.) was the star of the night, logging double-digit kills in each match and 26 on the night. The senior had 10 kills against no errors, while hitting .556 to lead her team to victory over Northwestern. Against Coe she had 16 kills and while taking a team high 39 swings.
Kaylie Clark (Garden Palin, Kans.) had 13 kills against Coe, and Theis had 12. That same pair also had nine and seven respectively in the win over Northwestern.
With two wins the Cougars improve to 15-11 on the season and move to 7-3 in UMAC play. They now sit just a game behind second place Northwestern, with four conference matches left to go.
UMM returns to action tomorrow (Oct. 23) as they host Crown at 11:00 a.m. Be sure to make it out as it will also be the Cougars Dig Pink match, as they team up with the Side-Out Foundation to fight breast cancer.
