Crookston, Minn.—No. 8 Wayne State used big runs in each of the three sets to sweep Minnesota Crookston on Friday night inside Lysaker Gymnasium (14-25, 16-25, 14-25).
 
Minnesota Crookston falls to 4-16 overall (2-10 NSIC), while Wayne State College continues their impressive season to improve to 18-3 overall (9-3 NSIC).
 
Key Players
Minnesota Crookston
Deaira Gresham, 10 kills, 34 total attacks, 5 digs
Porsha Porath, 6 kills, 22 total attacks
Sydney Kruisselbrink, 19 assists
 
Key Players
Wayne State
Katie Stephens, 15 kills, 25 total attacks, .520 hitting percentage
Kelsie Cada, 10 kills, 25 total attacks
Rachel Walker, 29 assists
 
Set One
The two teams exchanged the first six points, resulting in a 3-3 tie. Minnesota Crookston got on the board first with a Porsha Porath (So., OH, Windom, Minn.) kill.
 
Minnesota Crookston would take a 5-3 lead, helped by a Sydney Kruisselbrink (Jr., S, Rochester, Minn.) kill and a Meli Rodriguez (Sr., MH, Sarchi, Costa Rica) service ace to lead 5-3.
 
Wayne State would take an 8-6 lead, before a Deaira Gresham (Jr., OH, Maplewood, Minn.) kill cut the lead to one.
 
Minnesota Crookston knotted things up at 10, but the Wildcats proved their strength by going on a 6-0 scoring run to take a 16-10 lead. That lead was enough to push the Wildcats to a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
Set Two
Once again, Minnesota Crookston jumped out to a 4-2 lead, scoring all four points on Wildcats' errors.
 
Minnesota Crookston would lead 6-4 after another Gresham kill, one of her ten on the night. The Wildcats would again go on a run to lead 9-6 and again another 4-0 run to lead 13-7.
 
The Wildcats would lead 15-7, but a Porath kill cut the WSC lead to 15-8.
 
Minnesota Crookston cut the lead to 18-12, before another big Wildcat run closed out the Golden Eagles in the second set, 25-16.
 
Set Three
Porath got the Golden Eagles off to a fast start in the first set, finishing off a great rally with a kill to lead 1-0.
 
Wayne State would rely on their balance to jump out to an 11-5 lead in the third set, which forced a Golden Eagle timeout.
 
Out of the timeout, the Golden Eagles got kills from Gresham and Porath to make it a 12-7 Wildcat lead. Sabrina Leuer (R-Sr., OH, Hamel, Minn.) tried her best to get the Golden Eagles back into the set by collecting a kill to once again cut the lead to 15-10.
 
Wayne State went on a late 5-0 run to finish off the Golden Eagles in the third set, 25-14.
 
Minnesota Crookston is back in action tomorrow afternoon for a quick turnaround at 2 p.m., as the Golden Eagles host Augustana University, who defeated Bemidji State in three sets on Friday night.