Reid Peters/Winonan
The Winona State University volleyball team split its pair of matches this week to start NSIC play, losing to Minnesota State University, Mankato on Thursday and upsetting No. 3 Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday.
The Warriors dropped their NSIC opener in a back and forth affair to start the week against Minnesota State. Winona State lost in five sets (21-25, 25-22, 25-22, 23-25, 12-15) in the Taylor Center at Mankato.
Sophomore Taylor Goar piled up 21 kills and 15 digs for the Warriors, while hitting .300 for her fourth double-double of the season.
The match featured changes in momentum right from the first set.
With the Warriors down 14-12, they reeled off four straight points to take a 16-14 advantage.
The Mavericks answered with three of their own points to retake the lead, but Winona State tied it up at 17 apiece shortly after.
Minnesota State went on a 6-0 run to claim a 23-17 lead and eventually closed out the set 25-21.
The second set was another close match, as neither team gained more than a two-point lead after an early 9-6 lead by Winona State.
Goar went on to close out the set with consecutive kills to secure a 25-22 victory to tie the match 1-1.
The Warriors started off slow offensively in the third set, producing three attack errors to fall behind 4-0.
Winona State responded quickly, going on a 6-0 run to gain a 12-9 lead. Goar led the way offensively and was responsible for the team’s final three kills to secure another 25-22 victory.
Despite being out hit by the Mavericks .308 to .172, the Warriors held on to win their second straight set.
Set four was knotted at 15-15 before the Warriors took control with a 4-0 run with kills from Maria Fruechte, Danielle Rampart, Goar and Lauren Kudronowicz to take a 19-15 lead. Mankato State immediately answered with a 4-0 run of its own to tie things up at 19.
The teams went back and forth in points until the score was again locked, this time 23-23. The Mavericks then strung together two points in a row to win the set 25-23 and force the teams into a decisive fifth set.
After a 2-0 lead by the Warriors to open the final frame, the lead never went above one point until the score read 11-9 in favor of Minnesota State.
The Warriors cut the deficit to within one on three separate occasions, but could not narrow the gap enough and ultimately fell to the Mavericks 15-12.
“We let them have runs they shouldn’t have gotten and we just need to work on executing plays in tight situations,” Kudronowicz said.
There were four Warriors who reached double digit kills with Goar leading the way. Kudronowicz chipped in 12 kills and hit .360, while Fruechte and Rampart each had 10 kills. Rampart also had 12 digs, giving her another double-double, her third of the season.
McKenna Larsen finished one kill shy of her second career triple-double, recording nine kills, 49 assists and 14 digs while achieving a .286 hitting percentage.
Cairncross led Winona State with a team-high 18 digs but also chipped in eight assists.
On Saturday the Warriors earned perhaps their biggest victory in program history when they defeated No. 3 Concordia-St. Paul.
In front of an announced crowd of 805 inside McCown Gymnasium for their home opener, the Warriors needed only four sets to upset the Golden Bears 3-1 (25-13, 17-25, 25-23, 26-24).
The win broke a 24 match-winning streak the Golden Bears held over Winona dating back to October 24, 2000. The win also gave Concordia just its 10th NSIC defeat in the past 13 seasons.
With Danielle Rampart on the sidelines, the Warriors were playing short-handed but were led offensively by the play of Goar and Fruechte.
The sophomores each posted double-doubles and combined for 37 of Winona State’s 61 kills as Fruechte recorded 17 kills and hit .452 with 12 digs, while Goar had a hitting percentage of .238 with a match-high 19 kills and 15 digs.
After jumping out to a 4-0 advantage in set one, Winona State built a 13-8 lead by the halfway mark of the set.
The Warriors did not look back and went on an 11-3 run, including the last five points, to win the set 25-13.
“We’ve been talking a lot about focusing on our side of the net and not playing to the score,” Fruechte said. “We’ve also been working on stopping the other team from getting on runs and playing our game no matter who’s on the other side.”
Winona State hit .438 in the first set and had one lone error on 15 kills.
The Golden Bears, who used an early 6-1 run to start the second set. The Warriors could not bounce back as the Bears went on to claim a 25-27 win in the second set.
Winona State used a 4-2 to start the third set after a kill by Goar. Consecutive errors by Concordia’s Anna Schlaak gave the Warriors a 7-4 advantage, which was followed by two straight kills from Fruechte for the 11-6 score in favor of Winona State.
The Golden Bears knotted it up at 17-17 and built a 23-20 advantage later in the set.
The Warriors, however, refused to go away. A kill and ace from Kudronowicz cut the deficit to within one and Goar followed with a kill, and a Concordia error gave the Warriors the lead 24-23.
A kill from Larsen capped the comeback with a 5-0 run to finish the set and put Winona State ahead 2-1 in the match.
“We have an awesome mind-set to never let a ball drop,” Kudronowicz said. “It’s a mind-set we bring everyday to practice, and it pays off.”
The fourth and final set was back and forth the entire way, with Concordia getting off to a 6-3 lead, but the Warriors brought it back with a 3-0 run of their own.
Neither team would lead by more than two points until blocks from Goar and Maria Wrage put the Warriors up 16-13.
Freshman Jordan Runge gave Winona State a spark with a trio of kills to put the Warriors up 19-16.
Concordia and Winona State went back and forth tying the game up at every mark until it was 24-24. Goar had two consecutive kills to tie it up at 24, then gave the Warriors a 25-24 lead before her serve led to an attack that went long, sealing the victory for the Warriors.
Jamie Carincross led all players with 17 digs while Larsen notched another double-double to join Goar and Fruechte.
Winona State (7-2, 1-1 NSIC) begins three matches this week, starting Tuesday when the Warriors travel to Upper Iowa for a 7 p.m. matchup in Fayette, Iowa.
