MINNEAPOLIS – The University of Minnesota Morris volleyball team shrugged off a poor second set and won its fourth straight match on Friday night with a 3-1 (25-19, 17-25, 25-7, 25-22) victory over North Central University.

The Rams look sharp early on and raced out to a four-point lead in the opening moments of the first set. However, a seven-point run by the Cougars erased that deficit and set them up with a 13-10 lead midway through. The advantage for Minnesota Morris would reach six points on multiple occasions. With the score 22-19, UMN Morris closed out the first set with an attack error from North Central, followed by consecutive aces from Jenna Howden.

Seven attack errors from the Cougars helped North Central knot the match up at 1-1. NCU went on top early by six points, only for Minnesota Morris to close the gap to two on an ace from Abbie Higley. With the score 20-17, North Central scored the final five points with three attack errors and a service error making up a significant chunk of that for the Rams.

The third set started off close, with Minnesota Morris leading, 5-4. From there, a pair of kills from Lydia Nash, two aces from Alyssa Ukestad, and a kill from Kennedy Geller made it 10-4. Following two straight points for the Rams, the Cougars took a 2-1 lead in the match by scoring 15 of the next 16 points, four of which came on aces from Nash.

North Central got back into the match in the fourth set and forced a timeout from the Cougars when the Rams took a 16-12 lead. That break helped settle Minnesota Morris and five consecutive points ensued for the Cougars, two on kills from Howden. Kills from Nash and Laura Wellbrock put UMN Morris ahead, 19-17, and NCU was unable to play catch-up from there. On a big offensive night, Nash supplied the final two points for the Cougars to end it.

Nash ended with 13 kills and a .429 hitting percentage, plus four aces and five digs. Geller and Maggie Jones each had eight kills. Geller added in four block assists, while Jones had two solo blocks and two block assists. Howden ended with seven kills, four aces, and six digs. Alyssa Ukestad had a team-high 11 digs as libero, while McKenzie Newton chipped in a double-double with 30 assists and 10 digs.

Minnesota Morris is back at it tomorrow afternoon in St. Paul, meeting the University of Northwestern at 1 p.m.