Four nationally ranked teams battled for two spots and a chance to move one step closer towards an NSIC volleyball title.
From Halenbeck Hall, in St. Cloud, Minnesota, four of the top five NSIC teams were among the top 18 in NCAA DII.
#15 Wayne State College (#3 seed) closed out Saturday night against #8 Concordia-St. Paul (#2 seed).
In total, there were 33 ties and 13 lead changes during the five-set battle. CSP secured the win to improve to 23-5 as the Wildcats fell to 23-7.
Scores of the match favored the Golden Bears 24-26, 25-15, 25-23, 22-25, 16-14.
Earlier this season, CSP won a four-set home match over WSC (25-20, 20-25, 25-18, 25-21) on Nov. 2.
Freshman setter Molly Romano recorded her 11th double-double of the season with 43 assists and 17 digs to go along with seven blocks (one solo) and two kills as sophomore outside Channatee Robles posted her seventh double-double with 18 digs and 10 kills. Sixth-year senior right side/middle Taya Beller finished with a team-high 20 kills, eight blocks (one solo) and two digs as senior libero Brooke Peltz led WSC in digs with 24.
Senior outside transfer Brooklyn Kusler added 12 kills and 11 digs for her second double-double of the season; sixth-year senior middle Maggie Brahmer tallied eight kills, five blocks (one solo) and one dig as freshman middle Chloe Hanel tacked on two kills, four blocks and three digs. Other digs came from freshman defensive specialist Anna Borner (13) and senior defensive specialist Allie Petry (eight).
Beller moves to #4 in all-time kills with 1,544 while Brahmer is currently 14th all-time with 1,351 kills.
Robles finished with two service aces as Beller had an ace.
Concordia-St. Paul outhit WSC, .339 to .249. WSC held an advantage in blocks (14-8). CSP won kills (81-56), assists (79-50), aces (7-3) and digs (119-97).
The Wildcats forced 37 attack errors compared to 19 committed by WSC.
Earlier in the evening, #2 St. Cloud State (#1 seed) improved to 26-2 with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-15, 25-19) victory over #18 Northern State (#5 seed) who fell to 21-7.
The NSIC Finals are slated for 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 24 in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
*The host Huskies won in four sets (25-18, 25-17, 29-31, 25-8) over CSP to earn the automatic spot in the Central Region Tournament to be held Dec. 5 – 8 at the #1 seed (as of last week was also St. Cloud State).
The DII volleyball selection show will be on Monday, Nov. 25 at 6:30 p.m. on NCAA.com. The Wildcats will hope for an at-large bid after entering the week at #8 in the Central Region. The Great American Conference champion (Ouachita Baptist) will be the #8 seed as teams will need to be in the top seven to advance. The MIAA champion was #9 Central Oklahoma who won in four sets over #3 UNK.
