HOUGHTON, Mich. – No. 20 Michigan Tech fell 3-1 to No. 7 St. Cloud State on Saturday at the SDC Gym in the final match of the UP North Tournament. The visiting Huskies won 25-18, 27-25, 21-25, and 25-18.
"We fought in this one and were in it," Tech coach
Matt Jennings said. "I'm disappointed in the loss but feel good that we played our best ball of the weekend today. Our good is really good, but we have some drop offs in certain positions.
"We'll turn our focus to GLIAC play. Our service receive and our backcourt defense need to be more consistent but coming out of the preseason 4-3 against some really good teams is ok."
There were nine ties and four lead changes in the opening set before SCSU used an 8-0 run to take a 23-15 lead. Tech got points off an ace by
Brynn Erickson and a kill by
Paige Wagner but the visitors got the final two points on kills by Hannah Bruskiewicz.
Meg Raabe and
Makena Wesol each had three kills in the first set.
Tech hopped out to a 5-0 lead in the second off the serve of
Brooke Dzwik, but SCSU battled back to tie it at 10. There were eight ties in the second.
Meg Raabe tied it at 23,
Rachel Zurek tied it at 24, and
Makena Wesol tied it at 25. SCSU then scored the final two points to take a 2-0 lead at the break. Raabe and Zurek combined for eight kills in the second.
The Black and Gold trailed by as many as six in the third but battled back late. A kill by
Meg Raabe made it 22-20 in favor of the home team and then SCSU had a service error and back-to-back attacking errors, which included a block by
Kaycee Meiners and
Meg Raabe, to get Tech the set win. Raabe and
Paige Wagner each put down six kills.
In the fourth, SCSU never trailed and hit .375 while holding Tech to .140. Tech drew within two late but the visiting Huskies scored the final five points to take the match win.
Meg Raabe tied a season-high with 17 kills while adding eight digs and a block.
Paige Wagner added 12 kills and hit .391.
Rachel Zurek hit .526 with 10 kills.
Tess Hayes set the offense with 43 assists and Brook Dzwik led with 15 digs to tie a career-high.
Tech is 4-3 and begins GLIAC play next weekend at Purdue Northwest on Friday and Parkside on Saturday.
