Wayne, Neb. -- #2 Wayne State rallied from a 2-1 set deficit to defeat #3 Concordia-St. Paul and capture the first-ever outright Northern Sun Conference regular season volleyball title Saturday afternoon in St. Paul, Minnesota. Scores of the match were 25-19, 16-25, 21-25, 25-18 and 15-8.

The Wildcats are now 29-1 and finished the NSIC regular season with a 19-1 league mark while #3 Concordia-St. Paul is 24-4 and 17-3 while losing at home for the first time this season. WSC shared the 2001 NSIC regular season title with Southwest Minnesota State for the only other NSIC regular season title in program history.

The Wildcats used five service aces in the opening set to get off to a strong start and take a 25-19 set win. Sophomore Hayvn Heinz had back-to-back aces early in the set that gave WSC an 11-7 lead. Jessie Brandl, Brooke Peltz and Kelsie Cada also had service aces while Maggie Brahmer and Taya Beller each recorded four kills.

Concordia-St. Paul stormed back in the second set, never trailing while jumping out to an early 7-2 lead, as the Golden Bears evened the match with a 25-16 victory thanks to 17 kills and a .424 hitting percentage. Taya Beller had seven of Wayne State’s nine kills in the set.

The red-hot hitting continued for the Golden Bears in the third set, recording 21 kills with a .516 hitting percentage, as Concordia-St. Paul took a 2-1 lead in the match with a 25-21 set win. Beller accounted for six kills in the set to lead the ‘Cats.

Wayne State wasted little time in gaining momentum back in the fourth set, taking early leads of 14-8 and 18-11 as the ‘Cats came back with a 25-18 fourth set win to even the match at 2-2. Junior outside hitter Kelsie Cada had nine kills in the set to lead the ‘Cats as WSC hit .400 in the set with 15 kills to force a fifth set.

The ‘Cats carried the momentum into the fifth set, never trailing as WSC used three blocks and eight kills to pick up the 15-8 fifth set win and cap the rally for the NSIC title.

Early in the set WSC used consecutive kills from sophomore Maggie Brahmer following a CSP service error to take a 3-1 lead and force a Golden Bear timeout.

Freshman Taylor Bunjer was in on a pair of blocks to go with a kill as WSC pushed the lead to 8-3. A pair of kills from Beller with a Kelsie Cada kill increased the Wildcat lead to 12-6 and the “Cats closed the set with a 15-8- win thanks to a service ace from Brooke Peltz on match point.

CSP held a slight edge over WSC in hitting percentage .331 to .329. The Golden Bears had a 74-57 advantage in kills while both teams had 63 digs. Both teams also had eight service aces and seven blocks, but CSP had 14 serving errors to none by Wayne State.

Taya Beller powered Wayne State in hitting with a career-high 21 kills. Cada followed with a double-double of 15 kills and 12 digs while Brahmer finished with 13 kills.

Setter Rachel Walker recorded a double-double with 48 set assists and 13 digs. Senior libero Jessie Brandl had a team-high 14 digs with Jordan McCormick adding 13. Brandl, Heinz and Peltz each had two service aces for the Wildcats.

Beller had four blocks for the ‘Cats with Bunjer and Brahmer each accounting for three.

Wayne State will compete in the NSIC Volleyball Tournament starting Friday in St. Paul, Minnesota and be the #1 seed and play the 7:30 p.m. match against an opponent to be announced Saturday evening.