SUPERIOR, Wis. – Minnesota Morris (11-8, 2-0 UMAC) picked up a pair of victories on Saturday. The Cougars beat Wisconsin-Superior (19-25, 28-26, 25-22, 25-18) and then swept Wisconsin River Falls (25-21, 25-23, 25-19).
Morris dropped the first set to Superior; the YellowJackets outhit Morris .213 to .143 in that set. The Cougars improved to .180 in the second set and held off Superior by scoring three straight points late to win 28-26.
With the match tied at one Morris led early in set three but the YellowJackets scored six straight points midway through to take a three point lead. They extended that lead to five at 16-11. Morris responded by scoring five straight and tied the match at 17. Eventually the Cougars pulled away and held on for a 25-22 win.
The fourth set began with a 6-1 run by UMM. The lead grew to ten at 21-11 before Morris closed it out with a 25-18 win.
Abby Tietz hit .316 in the match to lead the Cougars with 23 kills.
Marissa Ekness added 16 and
Cori Becker had 11.
Brooke Decker had 48 assists, an average of 12 per set. Five Cougars had at least 10 digs against the YellowJackets.
Morris hit .210 in their sweep over River Falls, once again proving that if the Cougars can reach that .200 clip they are successful in 2015. Ekness led the way with 16 kills on the night.
The Cougars jumped out to a 10-1 lead in the first set over the Falcons. River Falls came back with a seven point rally, pulling to within two at 16-14. Morris called a timeout and responded with a 5-2 run before winning the set 25-21.
Much like the first set the Cougars led big early. It was 15-6 before the Falcons made a run at it. They cut the lead to three at 22-19 and got it all the way down to one at 23-22 before Morris picked up a 25-23 win.
It was a 9-4 early lead in the third set for the Cougars but once again the Falcons rallied to get back in the set. The closed the gap to two at 18-16 but it was enough as Morris won 25-19.
