MORRIS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris volleyball team was nearly unstoppable on Friday night, hitting .330 as a team in a 3-0 sweep (25-19, 25-9, 25-13) of Northland College. The Cougars improve to 7-8 (3-1 UMAC) on the year.

Northland put up a fight in the first set, but lost steam as the match progressed. The first set was tied just twice, at 1-1 and 2-2, before Minnesota Morris began to put some separation between the two teams. A kill from Lydia Nash and an ace two points later from Alyssa Ukestad put the Cougars up, 5-2. The LumberJills closed to within a point at 14-13, but kills from Jenna Howden, Laura Wellbrock, and McKenzie Newton opened up a four-point margin and Northland was unable to battle back. Another kill from Howden ended it at 25-19.

The second set was all Minnesota Morris. Maggie Jones and Wellbrock started it with a block and Jones followed with a kill before another ace from Ukestad made it 3-0. From 7-5, UMN Morris would score seven out of eight points to take a 14-6 edge. Following a point for Northland, the Cougars rattled off another eight straight points, making it 22-7 and all but ending the set for a 2-0 lead.

It was more of the same in the third set. Ahead 3-2, Minnesota Morris scored seven in a row with the LumberJills committing four attack errors in that span to make it 10-2. Northland could get no closer than five points the rest of the way and the Cougars closed the match out by eight of the final nine points.

As a team, Minnesota Morris ended with 44 kills versus just six attack errors. Wellbrock led the Cougars with a match-high 11 kills to go along with 15 digs and three block assists. Jones had nine kills and four block assists while hitting .474. Howden and Nash each added eight kills. Newton ended with 38 assists and a pair of aces. Ukestad had a match-high 20 digs and four aces.

Minnesota Morris wraps up the weekend at home tomorrow with an 11:30 a.m. match against UW-Superior.