UMD Volleyball Looks to Break Out of Funk Against Southwest Minnesota State

The Bulldogs have dropped three of their last four, including a three-set loss to St. Cloud State on Tuesday night.

DULUTH, Minn.- It hasn’t been easy for the UMD volleyball team as of late.

The Bulldogs have dropped three of their last four, including a three-set loss to St. Cloud State on Tuesday night.

More challenges await the team as they get set to host 4th ranked Southwest Minnesota State on Friday night.

Just last season, the two teams faced off in some competitive matches with UMD taking the latest contest in four sets.

Head Coach Jim Boos admitted that he wishes his team was in a better position but says sometimes adversity can be a good thing.

“That’s where we’re having a little bit of struggle is responding to the different environments, the different opponents and threats that they provide us. We’re there, we’re on the verge, we’re close. I don’t want to dive off the deep end here because we’re in a 3-4 match funk. Because, even with that we’re still only 1-2 in conference and we still have 15 matches to play. So there’s plenty of time to get back in to this thing and get back to playing good volleyball,” said Boos.

And having the home crowd behind them this weekend is already lifting up the players.

“Every year we talk about protecting Romano. Against Concordia, we protected it for those first two sets and we kind of just let it go. That’s going to definitely be our main focus against SMSU and Sioux Falls. Not letting someone come into our gym and push us around and that’s gotta be the mentality for everyone that’s on that court,” said setter Maddi Kealy.

UMD looks to pick up their 13th win all-time against Southwest Friday at 6 PM.