Wayne, Neb. — #8 Wayne State used nine service aces while forcing 21 attack errors to hand #24 Northern State their first loss of the season Saturday afternoon in Northern Sun Conference volleyball played in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Scores of the match were 25-19, 25-19, 25-18, giving the Wildcats records of 8-2 and 2-0 in the league while the host Wolves are now 9-1 and 1-1 in the league.
The Wildcats trailed in the opening set 9-7, but scored three straight points thanks to consecutive service aces from senior Brooke Peltz, to take the lead for good at 10-9. WSC extended the lead to 16-11, forcing another Northern State timeout, and the Wildcats closed with a 25-19 opening set win.
Senior Taya Beller had five kills on nine swings in the opening set followed by Brooklyn Kusler with four. Peltz ended the opening set with 11 digs and a pair of service aces as the Wildcats forced NSU into eight attack errors without recording a block.
The second set saw Wayne State never trail as the Wildcats surged late in the set for another 25-19 set win.
With WSC leading 16-15, the ‘Cats used a pair of Kusler kills, a block from Kusler and Magge Brahmer and another service ace from Peltz to take control of the set at 20-16.
Kusler had a team-high five kills in the set for the ‘Cats while Brahmer had four kills on eight swings with three blocks. WSC held NSU to a .118 hitting percentage and forced another seven errors with four blocks on the Wolves.
The third set was close between the two clubs until Beller served up three aces in a span of five points as the Wildcats completed the sweep by pulling away from Northern State for a 25-18 third set win.
Beller had four kills, three aces and a pair of blocks to propel the Wildcats in the final set. Brahmer and Channatee Robles each added three kills in the set as WSC forced six more errors on NSU in the third set.
Wayne State finished the match with a .211 hitting percentage, recording 38 kills with just 10 attack errors. NSU hit just .121 with 37 kills and 21 errors on 132 attacks. Northern State held a 79-64 advantage in digs, but WSC held the upper hand in blocks (7-5) and service aces (9-3) while both teams had five service errors.
Kusler led a balanced hitting attack for the Wildcats with 11 kills to go with a pair of service aces. Beller finished with 10 kills, three aces and three blocks while Brahmer accounted for nine kills and four blocks. Robles added eight kills and nine digs.
Senior libero Brooke Peltz was credited with three service aces and a match-high 26 digs while freshman setter Molly Romano handed out 32 set assists with five digs.
The Wildcats will play their first home matches of the season next weekend hosting Minot State Friday evening at 6 p.m. and the University of Mary Saturday afternoon in a 1 p.m. contest.
