DULUTH — You didn’t have to look far Saturday at Romano Gym to find evidence of the injury Minnesota Duluth volleyball player Cianna Selbitschka was dealing with last fall.

Selbitschka, a 5-foot-10 outside hitter, is one of the athletes featured on a banner along the one wall, near the entrance to the gym, and she is sporting a wrap around her right hitting hand.

“It got bigger every week,” Selbitschka said of the wrap used to protect her right thumb, which had two torn ligaments. “It was a nice big club towards the end.”

Added UMD coach Jim Boos, “It became a padded monstrosity of a glove. She erred as much as she terminated. That’s the difference right now, she is starting to become much more efficient as an attacker.”

This year, Selbitschka is wearing a brace on her right knee, the product of a meniscus tear suffered while working out in the spring. She’s holding off on surgery until after the season, “gutting it out for the team,” and figures she’s 90% healthy.

“A lot of icing, that’s for sure,” she said.

Selbitschka at 90% is better than most at 100, as evidenced by Saturday’s 3-0 NSIC sweep of Northern State before 580 at Romano.

Selbitschka had 14 kills, four block assists and three aces as No. 10 UMD overcame a tough early challenge to win 28-26, 26-24, 25-17 and improve to 12-0 overall and 4-0 in league play.

Selbitschka said before the season this could be a special year, but 12-0? That’s the Bulldogs' best start since starting 21-0 in 2016.

Selbitschka, who finished with a .282 attack percentage, was asked if she could have envisioned a 12-0 start.

“Honestly, no, but we worked our butts off in the preseason to make this year better than last year,” she said. “We definitely improved our offense this year. We have options at all three positions. Everyone is swinging and everyone is terminating. It’s a great offense we have this year.”

UMD is way more balanced than last season.

Selbitschka and Sydney Lanoue lead the Bulldogs with 137 kills apiece, but a pair of 6-foot-3 middle blockers, Samantha Paulsen and Grace Daak, aren’t far behind with 120 and 106, respectively, while senior Hope Schjenken of Deer River is also in triple figures with 102 kills.

Selbitschka’s performance Saturday was a bit of a statistical anomaly for UMD this fall in that she was the only Bulldog in double figures in kills.

“Give credit to the opponent,” Boos said. “Northern State did a very good job of pressuring us at the service line and making us uncomfortable. We weren’t able to be as balanced as we’d like to be. We were more outside heavy, but even today we had six kills in five different spots. That’s where we need to be. That’s where the strength of this team is.”

Paulsen added eight kills and three block assists, Schjenken had seven kills, two solo blocks and three block assists.

Madison Gordon paced the offense with 24 set assists while fellow senior Lanoue had six kills, 10 digs and four set assists.

“Last year we were always trying to figure out how we could even throw a lineup out here, with the injuries and issues we were going through,” Boos said. “This year, we’re back to a little bit of normalcy.

“We started the year with Syd (Lanoue) as our libero. She was our libero the last two seasons. After two sets it was not going well, and we made a dramatic change and moved Syd to the outside 2 position and Kaylyn (Madison) to libero and we’ve gone with that ever since.”

Sally Gaul had 10 kills and Taylor Buckley added nine kills and eight digs to lead Northern State (7-5, 2-2 NSIC), a program that is only three years removed from a 25-6 season, NSIC championship and berth in the NCAA Division II regional semifinals.

The Wolves showed they’re not far from being elite. They led the first set by 24-22 and 25-24 margins. They led the second set 20-18. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third and final set, then led 11-6 before the proverbial wheels fell off. UMD, with freshman Mary Satori serving, scored the final seven points, with Satori finishing it in style with an ace.

“Close doesn’t get you anything in this league,” Northern State coach Brent Aldridge said. “We’ve been at the top of the league before, and now we just have to find a way, and sometimes it’s only one point, when you get one side out or one block and that’s enough.

“We’ve played well at times, even with a lot of new faces. We tried to serve a little tougher and get them out of system. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.”

It’s a fine line between winning and losing in the NSIC, regarded as the toughest volleyball conference in NCAA Division II.

“You can be plus-two (on points) until you get to 20, like we were in the second set, and then you lose,” Aldridge said. “You think you have control of it, but you never really have control of it until you’re two points ahead at 25.”

Instead it ended up being another sweep for the Bulldogs, their fifth straight.

While Lanoue has emerged this season, Selbitschka was the Bulldogs' go-to player in this one. The second-year North Branch (Minn.) product had four straight points in the first set for the Bulldogs, including a trifecta with three unanswered kills as UMD went from up 15-11 to up 18-11 in a hurry.

“The exciting thing for us, we have yet to see Cianna at 100%,” Boos said. “She’s been dealing with issues throughout her time with us, but at some point, we’re hoping she crosses that threshold and people will be really excited to see what she’s capable of.”