GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The Fighting Sioux volleyball team dropped a tight match to long-time rival North Dakota State on Thursday at the Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse in a renewal of a rivalry that had been dormant since 2003. The sweep did not come easy for the Bison (5-4), who had to rally past the Sioux (8-4) in the first two sets before finishing the match off in the third set (26-24, 25-21, 25-19).
UND surrendered a season-high hitting percentage to the Bison, who attacked at a .311 clip and were led by sophomore Brynn Joki's career-high 18 kills. Sophomore Megan Lambertson also provided an offensive spark for NDSU, converting eight of her 10 attacks for kills to hit .700 on the night.
The Sioux were led offensively by the junior duo of
Devin Trefz (Bagley, Minn.) and
Annika Smed (Albert Lea, Minn.) with nine kills each, but the team combined for only 32 in the match. Senior
Erin Joki (Grand Rapids, Minn.), whose little sister got the upperhand in the first meeting between the two on opposite sides of the net, had seven kills on 19 swings (.368).
“I thought we played good volleyball in those first two sets and really responded to a tough atmosphere,” UND head coach
Ashley Hardee said. “But, you have to give NDSU credit. They cleaned things up and were able to stay in system, which we had a hard time stopping. Brynn played fantastic for them and she was hard for us to slow down.”
Things looked good early on the for the Sioux as they jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead and led by as many as four points on three different occasions in the first set, but the Bison would not back down. UND owned a 24-22 lead with Smed on the service line, but the younger Joki was able to put down back-to-back kills to square the match for just the second time.
The NDSU defense then rose to the occasion giving the squad its first lead of the set with a block to make it 25-24, then Chrissy Knuth and Joki teamed up for another block to secure the first set.
The Bison's momentum did not carry over into the second set though as the Sioux jumped out to a quick 7-1 lead. Unfortunately for UND, it did not take NDSU quite as long to respond this time around. The Bison reeled off nine of the next 12 points to tie things up at 10-10.
The teams would go back-and-forth during the middle portion of the set before NDSU built a three-point lead at 21-18 on the strength of a kill and ace by Joki. The Sioux would not get any closer as a kill by Brooke VandenBergh closed out the set at 25-21.
The Sioux grabbed a quick 1-0 lead in the third set, but that would be the only advantage of the final set for UND. A 7-0 run midway through pushed the Bison's lead from a 12-11 lead to a 19-11 lead and all but seal the fate for UND.
VandenBergh (11 kills and 11 digs) and Joki (18 kills and 10 digs) both had double-doubles for the Bison. Smed led the Sioux in digs with seven, while freshman setter
Ellen Krueger had 29 assists. NDSU setter Jennifer Lopez had 40 assists to go with seven kills and seven digs.
– Go Sioux –
