GRAND FORKS, N.D. – The University of North Dakota won its fourth-consecutive match, and its twelfth-consecutive at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center, 3-0, on Thursday.

UND (15-6, 4-1 BSC) after losing its first conference match, has rallied to post four-consecutive victories to improve its spot in the Big Sky Conference standings.

In the first set, UND jumped out to an early 3-1 lead with an early kill from Julia Kaczorowska and forcing two Wildcat errors. After the Wildcats cut the UND lead to one, Chelsea Moser rattled off two kills to give UND a 5-2 lead. Following the kills by Moser, UND was able to win a long rally after a kill by Kaczorowska and a block by Moser forced a Weber State timeout with UND leading, 7-2.

Following the timeout, UND continued to attack as Denae Dominguez fired an ace to give UND a 10-4 lead in the first set. Following the ace, Weber State looked to climb back into the game, scoring the game's next three points to cut the UND lead to 10-7. The green and white answered right back, however, scoring the next two points to reclaim a 12-7 lead.

The first set continued to be a back-and-forth affair with both teams trading points in the middle of the frame, with UND holding a 15-11 lead at the media timeout. Following the media timeout, UND rattled off the next four points to claim a 19-12 lead.

The Wildcats would not go quietly however; cutting the UND lead to 20-16 and then evened the set at 23-23, forcing a UND timeout, but UND was able to finish off the Wildcats in the first set with a kill from Kaczorowska to claim the set, 25-23.

In the second set, UND once again jumped out to an early lead by scoring the set's first three points. UND continued to attack the Wildcats, jumping out to a 7-2 lead for the second-consecutive set. At this point in the match, UND was hitting .340 while holding the Wildcats to .191 on the attack.

Once again, the Wildcats would not let UND dictate the pace of the match, as WSU was able to cut the game to 10-9 UND. WSU evened the game at 10 following a kill by Ciera Borho. Then the Wildcats took their first lead of the game as Tanisha Langston and Megan Thompson combined for a block to give the Wildcats a 12-11 lead. WSU continued to ride the momentum, scoring the next two points and forcing a UND timeout with a 14-11 lead.

Following the timeout, both teams traded points through the middle part of the second set with WSU leading 16-15 at the media timeout.

UND was able to even the score at 16 after forcing a Wildcat attack error. Then UND immediately grabbed the lead with a Denae Dominguez ace, her second of the game, forcing a WSU timeout.

After another Weber State timeout, UND was able to grab its biggest lead of the second set since the 7-2 lead when Dooley and Amanda Harnett combined for a block to give UND a 21-17 lead.

UND was able to hold off the WSU pressure again and claim the second set, 25-19 for a 2-0 lead heading into the break.

Through two sets, UND was outhitting the Wildcats .320 to .194 and forced 19 WSU errors.

In the third set, UND once again started out hot with Courtney Place starting the set with an ace. Following the ace, both teams continued to trade points as the score was even at 4-4.

After the Wildcats grabbed a 5-4 lead, UND rattled off the next four points to grab its biggest lead of the third set at 8-5. UND continued to build on its lead with a block from Sydney Griffin and Dooley, then Lauren Clarke deposited UND's fourth ace of the night to give the green and white a 11-6 lead and a WSU timeout.

Following the WSU timeout, the Wildcats were once again able to climb back into the game, and tie the game at 12. Weber was able to gain the lead in the third set at 13-12, before a WSU service-error evened the score at 13. Griffin gave UND the lead again with a block, the block was UND's sixth of the match.

Once again, UND found itself in a tight, conference battle, as Weber State continued to not go away throughout the match. However, UND found the separation that it needed late in the set as Harnett and Moser combined for UND's seventh block of the contest to give the green and white a 18-15 lead and forcing a WSU timeout.

After UND grabbed a 21-17 lead, Weber State once again did not say die as the Wildcats pulled within two at 21-19 before UND forced a Weber State attack error to lead 22-19, and a WSU service-error to lead 24-20.

UND was able to force one-last WSU attack-error to claim the sweep, 3-0.

North Dakota will take on Idaho State in another Big Sky showdown on Saturday at 12 p.m. 

-UND-