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ST. PAUL, Minn. – The No. 21 Winona State volleyball team took a two-set lead, then held on to top No. 2 Southwest Minnesota State 3-2 Saturday afternoon at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul to send the Warriors to the program's first NSIC title game.
WSU (20-9) advances to the NSIC Tournament championship game Sunday at 1 p.m. in St. Paul against the winner of top-seed and host Concordia-St. Paul and Minnesota Duluth.
The win was the Warriors' second straight NSIC Tournament five-set upset, their third straight win over a top five team and fourth straight over a ranked opponent. The victory also marked the first over SMSU since 2007, snapping the Mustangs' 14-game winning streak in the series and avenging a pair of losses earlier this season.
The Warriors showed tremendous balance offensively, as all six starters tallied at least eight kills. Four Warriors recorded double-doubles in the match, as Taylor Goar led WSU with 14 kills and 15 digs, Maria Fruechte added 13 kills and 17 digs, Danielle Rampart turned in 12 kills with 11 digs and McKenna Larsen passed out 51 assists with 10 digs.
Lauren Kudronowicz also finished with 10 kills while hitting .333. Larsen hit a team best .467 with eight kills and Rampart finished with an even .300 performance.
WSU appeared headed for a sweep of the Mustangs, winning the first two sets by scores of 25-22 and 25-20 and had an 8-3 lead in the third set before Southwest Minnesota State mounted a patented comeback, controlling the majority of the third and fourth sets to tie the game.
But despite dropping the past two sets and momentum on SMSU's side, the Warriors were the more impressive team in the decisive final set. After an ace gave the first point to the Mustangs, Maria Wrage came up with a kill to tie at one and an SMSU attack error gave WSU the lead. Back-to-back kills from Fruechte put the Warriors up 5-3, forcing an early SMSU timeout. It didn't work, as Fruechte notched her third straight kill and Rampart added one as well to cap off a crucial 4-0 run for the Warriors to take a 7-3 advantage.
Unlike in the third and fourth sets, SMSU was never able to string together more than two straight points in the final set. An attack error from Taylor Goar pulled the Mustangs to within one point, but again the Warriors found the run thanks to four straight SMSU errors to give WSU match point at 14-9. SMSU survived one, but Maria Wrage smashed home the final kill to send WSU to the NSIC championship game with the thrilling 15-10 win.
The first set was a game of runs by both teams. Six straight SMSU points put them up 9-4 but WSU answered right back with a 6-0 spurt of its own to retake a 10-9 lead. SMSU turned that into a 6-2 run, and then the Warriors scored four straight to bring it back to a one point lead at 16-15. The Mustangs later had a 21-20 lead, but five of the final six points went to WSU for the 25-22 victory.
WSU opened the second set with another run, scoring the first five points and led 16-9 after another 4-0 run. Four straight points from SMSU cut it to 21-17, but the two squads traded points after that as a Rampart kill earned the 25-20 win to put the Warriors up 2-0.
The victory gives WSU its second 20-win season since 1994, with the other coming in 2012 when the team finished 20-11.
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