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UMD's Taylor Wissbroecker drove one of her 17 kills past Wayne State blockers Erin Gross and Alex Opperman. Photo credit: John Gilbert

  While this week is the ideal time to give thanks, the UMD volleyball team members can be thankful they play in the toughest conference in Division II – the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Otherwise, their often dominant and occasionally sensational season might be over.
   A stunning loss to Wayne State last week in the first round of Northern Sun play could have ended UMD’s sesason, as Bulldog fans left Romano Gym in something resembling shock after watching a 2-0 lead in games disappear and become a 3-2 loss.
  

Allison Olley (13) and Taylor Wissbroecker blocked Alex Opperman;s attempt as UMD won the first two sets of their NSIC playoff match. Photo credit: John Gilbert

But having been the No. 1 ranked team in the nation for a month, and establishing an outstanding record all season helped, and the NCAA Division II selection committee thought enough of the NSIC to invite six teams to the regional. UMD is one of them, and the Bulldogs will play Winona State in the quarterfinals of the regional.
   Regular season champion Concordia of St. Paul won the league playoff, gaining a first-round bye in NSIC play, then beating Winona State in three straight sets. Wayne State, the miracle workers from last season, went to Concordia but lost in straight sets to Southwest Minnesota State. That sent Southwest against Concordia, and Concordia prevailed in three straight – 25-21, 27-25, 25-19.
In the regional, along with UMD and Winona, Concordia will take on Southern NazareneSIC team, Augustana, will face Nebraska-Kearney. That means five of the eight teams in the regional are from the NSIC.
  

Wayne State's Michaela Mesti (5) squeezed a kill through UMD blockers Sydnie Mauch (15) and Emily Torve (4) as Wayne rallied to win the last three sets. Photo credit: John Gilbert

“In our region, any of the eight teams could win the national title,” said UMD coach Jim Boos. “Last year, we were ranked fifth in the country, and didn’t get in.”
Boos remembers last season well, when Wayne State made a memorable run to the national semifinals. “Last year, Wayne was host to us,” he said. “We won, so they didn’t get to our semifinals, but they were ranked high enough to squeeze in as the last at-large team in the NCAA regional. Then they upset the No. 3 and No. 2 teams to get to our final, then beat Concordia, the No. 1 seed. They went on and got all the way to the semifinals in the NCAA tournament.”
This year, UMD is in the exact same role Wayne State was last year. “In a way, maybe it’s a blessing that we didn’t spend last weekend playing in our semifinals and finals,” Boos said.
  

Makenzie Morgen, who led UMD with 20 kills, struck a serve against Wayne. Photo credit: John Gilbert

But the coach was mystified at how his team seemed to come apart after winning the first two sets against Wayne, 25-20, 25-20. After the break, UMD continued to play pretty well, but Wayne State came from a 12-12 deadlock to take two point, allow UMD one, then rattle off five straight and win the set 25-20.
Game 4 was more of the same, as Wayne State’s confidence grew, so did its rhythm, and UMD lost its rhythm by equal doses. UMD led in the fourth by 12-10, but then was outscored 9-2. Again UMND strained, cutting the deficit to 20-18, but lost again by 25-20.
   The fifth and deciding set was even more of a puzzler. UMD seemed to regain control, getting up 12-7 en route to their objective of 15, but then the Bulldogs gave up seven consecutive points, and lost 15-13.
“When we were up 12-7, we only needed three points to win the match,” said Boos. “But they scored seven in a row. Wayne was consistent all day, and we played pretty well in the first two games, then played worse and worse. We had a lot of breakdowns. That’s the way it is at this time of the year – you have to play through to the last point. You can never rest.”
   Makenzie Morgen led both teams with 22 kills, while Taylor Wissbroecker had 17, getting 12 in the first two sets. Allison Olley had 14 kills. Wayne was led by Alyssa Frauendorfer with 19 kills and Michaela Mesti and Erin Gross had 11 each. UMD senior Sydnie Mauch had only 6 kills, but she also had 5 blocks, which boosted her to a career total of 385 blocks – two more than Monica Turner’s career record of 383.
What concerned Boos the most was not the ineffective run of kills, but mistakes. Several times in the last two sets UMD players would either hit balls back that were clearly headed out, or back away and assume a ball would go out only to see it land inside the line. “We erred 13 more times than Wayne,” said Boos, with his inflection indicating that such erratic play not only is out of character for his team, but it is not a recipe for success at regional time.

Football Over

   The UMD football team, after running off 10 straight victories in an impressive run after losing the first game of the season, found itself on the road to Emporia State for the first round of Super Region 3 competition. The Bulldogs have made a run of overcoming defensive inconsistency with creative offense, but not this time.
The Bulldogs rallied to close to within one touchdown at halftime, but Emporia State came out and marched down the field for another touchdown to open the second half, then the Hornets intercepted a Drew Bauer pass for an unprecedented second time in the game, and went in promptly to score again. Trailing by three touchdowns proved too much to overcome.
Emporia State burned the Bulldog defense repeatedly, outscored UMD 31-6 in the second half, and won 59-26.