Box Score

ABERDEEN, S.D. – The Northern State University Wolves started the night off with a convincing 25-10 victory in the first set of Saturday's Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference volleyball match, but couldn't hold on to the momentum, allowing the visiting St. Cloud State University Huskies to escape Wachs Arena with a five set victory by final set scores of 10-25, 25-20, 15-25, 25-22, 16-14.

The loss marked the third straight set-back for the Wolves, who had opened the season with a 7-match win streak.  NSU is now 7-4 overall and 0-3 in NSIC action.  Three of the Wolves' four losses have come against nationally ranked opponents.  SCSU, the lone non-ranked loss, improved to 7-3 on the year and 2-0 in conference play.

After splitting the first two opening sets of the night, the Wolves claimed a relatively quiet third set to take the 2-1 overall lead.  NSU nearly put the match away in the fourth set, rallying from a 21-17 deficit to close to within one at 21-20 on an Amber Bloom service ace.  The Huskies, however, took four of the final six points of the match to force the fifth and final set of the night.

SCSU raced out to a 7-1 lead to open the fifth set and looked well on its way to the victory before the Wolves came alive to put together a late-set rally.  Sophomore Ella Campbell and junior Kaili Aiono recorded service aces in that rally.  Senior Jordan Schaffer had three of her 11 total kills in the fifth set and was also in on a key block with freshman Paula Martins.

The Huskies, however, used back-to-back kills from Lauren Clipperly and Ashley Shields on the final two plays of the night to pull off the victory.

Bloom just missed her third triple-double of the season, finishing the night with 20 kills, 26 assists and nine digs.  Schaffer chimed in with 11 kills and no errors on 26 total attacks, while junior Konefesi Vaisigano added 10 kills and 12 digs for the Wolves.

NSU will break from NSIC play on Tuesday with a non-conference road game at Jamestown College before returning home next weekend for another stiff test against No. 7 Wayne State and Augustana on Friday and Saturday, respectively.