GRAND FORKS, N.D.-- North Dakota's trio of Devin Trefz (Bagley, Minn.), Amanda Polzin (Hutchinson, Minn.) and Annika Smed (Albert Lea, Minn.) keyed an overpowering offensive attack as the Fighting Sioux volleyball team rolled to a 3-0 sweep of Texas Pan-American at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
UND won 25-20, 25-16 and 25-15 to improve to 2-0 in the Great West Conference and 7-5 overall. The Broncs fell to 3-9 and 1-1 in league play.
“We played really well again behind another great home crowd,” UND head coach Ashley Hardee said. “We settled in again after a tight first set and really played our game. I thought our defensive effort was outstanding. We held them to below .100 in attack percentage and that is always one of our goals.”
Trefz and Smed each had a match-high 12 kills, while Polzin added 10 to pace a Sioux offense that connected on a .303 attack percentage. The UND defense was equally as stout, holding the visitors to .067 attack percentage.
Senior setter Megan Langseth had 34 assists for the Sioux and senior libero Lindsay Vortherms had a team-high 10 digs.
The Sioux and Broncs were tied at 16-16 in the opening set before a kill by Trefz put the home team ahead by one. UND never trailed again, scoring the final three points to post a 25-20 victory.
The second and third sets came a little easier for the Sioux as they kept on the attack and limited UTPA to just 17 kills in the final two games. For the contest, UND had 47 kills to the Broncs 26.
The Broncs never threatened in the second set as UND breezed to a 25-16 victory. Smed had four kills in the set.
UTPA was even with the Sioux in the third set at 10-10, but a 9-1 run by UND all but sealed the victory. Langseth and senior Britta Hanson (Thompson, N.D.) each held serve four times during the run.
UND will take to the road this week for a pair of non-conference matches in the Great Northwest. The Sioux will take on Seattle on Tuesday before driving across the state of Washington to play Gonzaga on Wednesday.
