GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- In its regular-season finale, the University of North Dakota women's volleyball team earned a 3-2 win against Eastern Washington on Saturday morning at Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.

While celebrating Senior Day, the team picked up the program's 100th win at the Betty.

“It's a great way to send off the seniors,” head coach Mark Pryor said following the game. “For us to start fast and have to experience the yo-yo like we've had every now and then, that's kind of part of the game. Really I think the important thing was all three of our seniors played a crucial, crucial role in the win.”

Perhaps the most notable performance of the game came from senior McKenzie Hart. Hart had 26 digs in the match and now has 768 so far this year, tying the Big Sky Conference record for digs in a single season.

With the win in the five-set match (25-21, 15-25, 26-24, 21-25, 15-13), UND now sits at 21-12 (9-7 Big Sky) heading into the conference playoffs next week, while Eastern Washington falls to 14-13 (9-7 Big Sky).

The Eagles jumped out to an early 4-1 lead in the first set, but UND kept it close, pulling within one with a big block from sophomore Faith Dooley and senior Kristen Giesbrecht. An attack error on EWU brought North Dakota even at 6-6.

Those two points sparked a 7-0 run for UND. Place and Moser each notched a kill, and Giesbrecht had two more blocks over that stretch to give North Dakota an 11-6 advantage. UND had four blocks through those first 11 points and would finish the first set with six total.

Though the Eagles would eventually come within two, North Dakota maintained its lead for the rest of the set, and finished it off by a score of 25-21. Freshman Courtney Place led UND with six kills in the set, as the team hit for .286.

In the second set, each squad grabbed a point to start, but the Eagles quickly built up a lead for themselves, forcing UND to call a timeout while trailing, 13-7. Junior Chelsea Moser earned the next point for North Dakota with a kill, but EWU stretched the lead to 20-9 with a 7-1 run. The Eagles went on to take the set, 25-15.

Kills from Sydney Griffin and Moser and a service ace from Hart gave UND the first two-point advantage of the third set, after it found itself trailing, 4-3, to start. That started a streak of four-straight kills from Moser to help build the lead to 9-7.

The Eagles would come back to tie it at 10-10, and the lead continued to switch and back forth until Eastern Washington took a 20-18 advantage, prompting a UND timeout. Behind four kills from Dooley, a 5-0 run for UND followed suit, and the team regained control with a 23-20 lead.

EWU would tie it twice before the end of the match, including at 24-24, but North Dakota closed out the set with a kill from Giesbrecht and an attack error committed by the Eagles. Dooley was huge in that third set, collecting eight kills to power UND to a 26-24 victory.

With a 2-1 lead in the match, North Dakota found itself down 4-1 to begin the fourth set. Eastern Washington never gained more than two-point lead, however, and UND took its first lead when a Moser kill made it 15-14.

The teams traded the next eight points, but the Eagles then ripped off five points to take a 22-17 lead. They claimed a 25-21 victory to tie the match up and force a fifth set.

This time it was UND who would get off to a hot start, as the green and white took control early with a 4-1 lead behind two kills from Dooley and two errors on the Eagles. Eastern Washington made it 8-7 to pull within one, but a service error and a block from Dooley and Place forced a timeout from the visitors.

Just as it was for the entire match, it remained another close battle the rest of the way; the only time either team would take two consecutive points again was when two consecutive Eagles kills cut UND's lead to 12-11. North Dakota stayed ahead the rest of the way, and a final kill from Moser sealed the 15-13 victory.

Griffin finished with a double-double for the second-straight game, with 43 assists and 13 digs. Dooley's 18 kills led UND on the day to go along with nine blocks, while Moser's .355 hitting percentage was a team high as well.

With the regular season now in the books, UND will turn its attention towards the Big Sky Conference Tournament, taking place Nov. 19-21 in Flagstaff, Ariz. With the results going final today, North Dakota has clinched the No. 7 seed for the Big Sky Conference Tournament and will face Idaho in the first round on Nov. 19 at 11:30 a.m. 

-UND-