ASHLAND, Wis. – The University of Minnesota Morris volleyball team split a pair of four-set matches on Saturday, falling to the College of St. Scholastica (19-25, 29-27, 14-25, 17-25) before heading over to face Northland College and earning a 25-12, 25-13, 22-25, 25-17 win. The Cougars move to 5-4 (5-3 UMAC) after the two matches and clinched the No. 4 seed in the UMAC Tournament.

With the UMAC Tournament being split into a championship and a consolation bracket, the No. 4 seed puts the Cougars into the championship bracket. Minnesota Morris will face No. 1 seed University of Northwestern in St. Paul on April 8 starting at 7 p.m. in a semifinal.

St. Scholastica 3, Minnesota Morris 1
An uncharacteristically error-filled match for the Cougars cost them in a loss to St. Scholastica. Minnesota Morris totaled 47 kills, but also committed 38 attacking errors to hit only .046 as a team in the match.

After losing the first set and going down, 24-21, in the second set, Minnesota Morris used three straight kills from Mia Frick to knot the score at 24-24. Later, with the score tied up at 27-27, Kennedy Geller and Tori Everson teamed up for a block to give UMN Morris a set point that was finished off by an Alyssa Ukestad ace to tie the match at 1-1.

St. Scholastica came back with a convincing win in the third set for a 2-1 lead and things slipped away from Minnesota Morris in the fourth set. Leading 17-14 after a kill from Jenna Howden, the Cougars suddenly gave up 11 straight points with attack errors and aces from the Saints accounting for nine of those points.

Everson, Frick, and Maggie Jones all had eight kills in the match for Minnesota Morris. McKenzie Newton had 35 assists and 22 digs, while Ukestad also chipped in with 19 digs.

Minnesota Morris 3, Northland 1
In a reversal from earlier in the day, Minnesota Morris cleaned up the errors and handled Northland in a match that decided who went to the UMAC championship bracket and who went to the consolation bracket. The Cougars committed only 12 errors in the whole match, with a mere six coming in the final three sets. 

In the first set, Northland found it impossible to get anything going against the UMN Morris defense. The Jills had only two kills in the whole set, compared to 14 for the Cougars. A pair of kills from Frick and two aces from Newton put Minnesota Morris up, 7-1, in the early going and they never looked back from there.

Minnesota Morris was unstoppable offensively in the second set, hitting a whopping .600 as a team with 16 kills versus just one error on 25 attack attempts. A run of five straight points turned a 10-7 lead into a 15-7 cushion on Hailey Remme's serve and the Cougars had an easy go of it from there to take a 2-0 lead.

After jetting out to a 4-0 lead, Minnesota Morris gave up the lead and allowed Northland to hang around with a 25-22 win in the third set. The team awoke in the fourth set, building a large margin and taking a 22-10 lead on a kill from Brenna Tinjum. Northland made a late run, but the Cougars were never in serious danger and kills at the end from Everson and Newton finished it off.

Jones led UMN Morris in the match with 10 kills on only 15 attempts. Everson had seven kills and 29 digs, with Ukestad joining her in double-figures on digs with 18. Frick added nine kills for the Cougars and Brooke Christensen emerged from a reserve role for six kills on only eight attacks.