TERRE HAUTE, IND. - The University of North Dakota volleyball team opened the Ashley Hardee era in grand fashion, taking both matches on day one Friday at the Best Western Sycamore Classic. The Fighting Sioux (2-0) had little trouble with the host Sycamores in their season opener, sweeping Indiana State (25-17, 25-20, 25-18).
UMKC proved to be a tougher oponent in the second match, but the Sioux rallied from one-set deficit to defeat the Kangaroos, 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-20).
"It's a great start to the season, but we still have two more matches to play tomorrow," Hardee said. "We played really well in the opener and Erin Joki did a fantastic job for us in both matches."
UND never trailed in the opening set of its match with the Sycamores as the Sioux jumped out to a 3-0 lead and went on to post a 25-17 victory. Sophomore Devin Trefz (Bagley, Minn.) was one of a trio of players with three kills in the first set to pace a UND offense that posted a .407 attack percentage. Senior Megan Langseth (Alexandria, Minn.) helped the Sioux to the high percentage as she was credited with a match-high 39 assists.
Trefz finished with a match-high 12 kills and shared match-high honors in services aces with teammate Erin Joki (Grand Rapids, Minn.) as the Sioux duo each had three.
Defensively, senior Lindsay Vortherms (Windom, Minn.) had a team-high 16 digs and sophomore Annika Smed (Albert Lea, Minn.) added seven. The Sioux allowed only two service aces against them and had 10 of their own.
In the second set, the Sioux fell behind early by the scores of 5-4 and 6-5, but senior Britta Hanson (Thompson, N.D.) sparked a 5-0 run with a pair of services aces to put UND ahead 10-6. The team would not trail again the entire match as they went on to win the second set, 25-20 and finished off the sweep by winning the third set, 25-18.
Joki, who finished with nine kills, equaled her career-high in attack percentage with a .438 mark (9k-2e-16a). Senior Amanda Polzin was the team's most efficient attacker, posting an error free .471 hitting percentage (8k-0e-17a).
In the match vs. the Roos, the Fighting Sioux dropped the opener 25-23, but bounced back to take the next three sets and pick up their second win of the day. Trefz once again led the team with 14 kills and Polzin added 11 to pace the offense. Vortherms once again came up big on the defensive end, registering 29 digs.
"Lindsay did a great job defensively all day, but especially in the second match against UMKC," Hardee said. "She did an outstanding job digging their attacks and keepig us in rallies. We didn't play great in the first set against them, but we settled in and did a nice job to pull out the victory."
Hardee was the fifth coach in Fighting Sioux history to earn a victory in his debut and just the third to earn a sweep.
The squad will close out the classic with a pair of matches on Saturday against SIU-Edwardsville at 8 a.m. CT and Akron at 2 p.m. CT.
