MINOT, N.D. — The Augustana volleyball team earned its seventh-straight victory with a 3-1 win over Minot State on Saturday afternoon inside the MSU Dome in Minot, North Dakota. The Vikings move to 19-8 and 12-6 in the NSIC while the Beavers fall to 3-24 and 2-16 in the NSIC. 

Augustana is the owner of the longest current win streak in the conference and has won the past eight of nine matches dating back to the Vikings 3-0 upset over then No. 8 St. Cloud State. 

In the first set, Augie struggled out of the gate trailing 6-3. The Vikings clawed back to tie things up at 11-all, but the Beavers took control back after a 4-1 run gave them the 15-12 lead which forced a Vikings timeout. MSU continued to pour it on as they extended their lead to 18-13 before Augustana finally was able to put together a run to tie things up at 18.

The Vikings forced a Beaver timeout after they took a 22-20 lead late on a hammer from Izzy Sommers. Sommers also capped off the first set with a kill that gave Augie the 25-22 set one victory. 

In the second frame, Minot State came out strong once again while the Vikings struggled offensively to get things going. The Beavers used a 6-1 run to take an 11-6 lead forcing Augie to take a timeout and talk things over. Both teams traded points back-and-forth until the score was 15-10 when the Vikings used a 5-1 run to cut the lead to one at 16-15 MSU. 

Nonetheless, the Beavers used a quick 3-0 run out of the timeout to bring the lead back to 19-15. The Vikings answered back with a 4-0 run themselves to tie things back up at 19-all but MSU edged Augie out with the 25-23 second set victory. Augustana dropped its first set since Halloween when they defeated then No. 12 Wayne State in five sets. 

Augustana jumped out to its best start of the afternoon with a 9-3 lead forcing a timeout from Beaver head coach Dana Cordova and company. The Vikings continued to extend their lead after a monster hit from Mearah Miedema making the lead 14-6. A kill by Maddy Guetter gave Augie its largest lead of the afternoon at 19-11 forcing a timeout from MSU. 

Augustana used a 6-3 run to end the third set and take the 25-16 set three victory capped off by a Payton Rosendahl kill.

In the fourth set, the Vikings used their momentum from the third set to build an early 10-6 lead and later a 15-7 lead. A Miedema kill gave Augie a commanding 19-12 lead, but the Beavers made a quick 3-0 run that cut the lead to 19-15. With the Vikings two points away from match point, Minot State used a 6-0 run to cut the lead to 23-21, but back-to-back errors from the Beavers killed their comeback efforts and gave the Vikings the 25-21 victory. 

Erika Bute finished one shy of tying her season-high of 37 digs with 36 on the afternoon. Avery Thorson finished with seven kills, a team-high 47 assists and 12 digs for her ninth double-double of the season.  Rosendahl and Sommers led the attack offensively with 13 kills apiece. Rosendahl hit at a .393 clip while Sommers hit at a .273 clip. Maddy Guetter earned her first career double-double with 11 kills and 11 digs on the afternoon. 

As a team, the Vikings recorded 57 kills, 54 assists and seven aces. Defensively, Augustana finished with 88 digs and three blocks. 

Quotable
"Two good road wins for the squad this weekend, which is very hard to do in the NSIC," head coach Jennifer Jacobs said. "Continuing to work hard in practice this week will be a big goal for us and we are happy to be home for the last conference weekend!"

Up Next
The Vikings will host No. 7 Northern State on Friday at 6 p.m. and MSU Moorhead on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the regular-season finale.