MORRIS, Minn. – Minnesota Morris (21-11) came to play on Wednesday night, sweeping Wisconsin-Superior (18-14) by a score of 25-19, 25-12, 25-7 in the UMAC Semi-finals. The Cougars will play Northwestern in the UMAC Championship at 7 p.m. in St. Paul. During the second set Marissa Ekness picked up her 470^th kill of the season breaking a 24 year old school record for most in a single season.
 
The Cougars were all over the YellowJackets early, forcing UWS to take a timeout when Abby Tietz made it 9-3 with a kill. Following the stoppage in play Superior closed the gap to four but Morris did not let the Jackets get any closer. Wisconsin-Superior used their second timeout trailing 17-8 but could only get as close as five before falling 25-19.
 
Just like the first set Morris jumped out on the YellowJackets, taking a 9-2 lead and forcing an early timeout. The lead grew to double digits at 13-3 forcing another UWS timeout. Minnesota Morris pushed their lead to 12 before closing the set out 25-13.
 
Through two sets the Cougars were hitting .240 and holding the YellowJackets to just .053 offensively. Ekness led the way with 11 kills, followed by Tietz who had seven.
 
Once again Minnesota Morris took off early in a set; the score was 9-2 when Superior called a timeout. The lead grew to 11 at 15-4, forcing the YellowJackets to burn their final timeout. The YellowJackets could not do anything to slow the Cougars down and Morris clinched the win 25-7. UMM hit .500 in the second set to raise their percentage to .311 in the match.
 
Tietz, Ekness and Cori Becker all finished with double digit kills in the match. Ekness led the way with 14 followed by Tietz with 13 and then Becker added 12. Decker finished with 34 assists in the match; she earned a double-double with 10 digs. She also added five service aces with four coming in the first set.